a member of a group of people who try to prevent crime or punish criminals in their community, especially because they think the police are not doing this (尤指认为警方不力而自发组织的)治安会会员 vigilantes patrolling the streets 巡逻街道的义务警员 vigilante groups 自发的治安小组 The neighbours have formed a vigilante group to keep a watch on the car park. 邻居们组成了一个义务警员小组来监视停车场。 Two vigilantes who took the law into their own hands were cleared yesterday of murder. 两名自行执法的义务警员昨天被证明犯有谋杀罪。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryVigilante is used before these nouns:- justice
Word Originmid 19th cent.: from Spanish, literally ‘vigilant’.