Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIC'TIM, n. [L. victima; Fr. victime.]

1. A living being sacrificed to some deity, or in the perform once of a religious rite; usually, some beast slain in sacrifice; but human beings have been slain by some nations for the purpose of appeasing the wrath or conciliating the favor of some deity.
2. Something destroyed; something sacrificed in the pursuit of an object. How many persons have fallen victims to jealousy, to lust, to ambition!