bad actor
Americannoun
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a mean, ill-tempered, troublemaking, or evil person.
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a vicious animal.
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an inveterate criminal.
Etymology
Origin of bad actor
First recorded in 1940–45
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“To watch you be a bad actor was so hilarious and then you would you would modulate it and change it,” Giamatti continues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
The Philippines “will only be a target if there’s a bad actor with bad intentions against the Philippines,” Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the country’s defense secretary, said in an interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Distributors are asked to provide the metadata for each individual song, which makes it possible for a bad actor to submit music using an existing artist's name, or one with a very similar spelling.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“Imagine what a bad actor might do,” said Ann Skeet, the senior director of leadership ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026
He had looked strangely comical, like a bad actor auditioning for a solemn part in a play.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
