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.
“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
Your friend may be able to add an alert to her mother’s bank account, notifying the bank of any named person or bad actor who should never have access to their account.
From MarketWatch • May 25, 2026
Demand from other agencies to use Grok has been anemic, people familiar with the matter said, except in a few cases where people wanted to use it to mimic a bad actor for defensive testing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
If a bad actor -- or even an electromagnetic storm -- disrupted enough satellites, GPS-based navigation would fail.
From Science Daily • Jan. 8, 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.
