depredator

From depredate +‎ -or.

• Hyphenation: de‧pre‧da‧tor

depredator (plural depredators)

1. One who depredates, or commits depredation.
   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 61:

     An open heath, a close plantation, were alike subjects of his apprehension; and the whistle of a shepherd lad was instantly converted into the signal of a depredator.

   • 1836, Robert Huish, Lander’s Travels‎:

     Orders were now given to fire on all depredators, royal or plebeian; and after a few shots had been discharged without producing any fatal effects, the thieves hid themselves amongst the rocks, and were merely seen peeping through the crevices.

   • 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “The ‘Norah Creina’”, in The Wrecker, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, pages 191–192:

     The sight of her old neighbourly depredator shivering at the door in tatters, the very oddity of his appeal, touched a soft spot in the spinster's heart.