bad guy

[bad gahy]

noun

Informal.

1. an evil or malicious person; a villain or someone perceived as one.

   The actor now makes his living guest starring as the bad guy on many different TV shows.

   Business consulting can turn you into the bad guy for people who don't want to know their idea could fail.

2. any person who does bad or harmful things, especially habitually.

   In tech security, you just have to live with the fact that the bad guys are already ahead of you.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bad guy¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

She said at times, parents needed to be "a bad guy" and establish stricter controls, including limiting screen time and not letting children look at phones at bedtime.

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You had my character in “To Live and Die in L.A.” — he just wanted to jump off bridges, drive opposite ways on the freeway and shoot bad guys.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Playing a bad guy fulfills one of his key ambitions.

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Some have gone so far to compare him to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Kirk called a “bad guy.”

Read more on Salon

“We don’t want the bad guys to know what we’re sending.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• antagonist 
• antihero 
• bad person www.thesaurus.com
• baddie 
• baddy www.thesaurus.com
• cad 
• knave 
• miscreant 
• scoundrel 
• villain