bastard
Americannoun
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bastards
plural
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a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate child.
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Slang.
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a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person.
Some bastard slashed the tires on my car.
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a person, especially a man.
The poor bastard broke his leg.
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something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual.
adjective
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illegitimate in birth.
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spurious; not genuine; false.
The architecture was bastard Gothic.
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of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions.
bastard quartz; bastard mahogany.
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having the appearance of; resembling in some degree.
a bastard Michelangelo; bastard emeralds.
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Printing. (of a character) not of the font in which it is used or found.
noun
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informal an obnoxious or despicable person
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informal a person, esp a man
lucky bastard
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informal something extremely difficult or unpleasant
that job is a real bastard
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old-fashioned a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate baby, child, or adult
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something irregular, abnormal, or inferior
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a hybrid, esp an accidental or inferior one
adjective
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old-fashioned illegitimate by birth
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irregular, abnormal, or inferior in shape, size, or appearance
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resembling a specified thing, but not actually being such
a bastard cedar
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counterfeit; spurious
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bastard
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French bastard, from Medieval Latin bastardus, perhaps ultimately from Germanic bāst-, bōst- (unrecorded) “marriage” + Old French -ard -ard, taken as signifying the offspring of a polygynous marriage to a woman of lower status, a pagan tradition not sanctioned by the church; compare Old Frisian bost “marriage,” see also bind; the traditional explanation of Old French bastard as derivative of fils de bast “child of a packsaddle” is doubtful on chronological and geographical grounds
Explanation
Bastard used to be a not nice thing you called a child whose parents weren't married. But now it's a more general insult hurled toward a jerk or bad person. Bastard can also simply mean "fraudulent." This is a great example of how words change in meaning over time. Today, if you were called a bastard, it probably has nothing to do with whether or not your parents are married: it just means someone doesn't like you (unless they call you a magnificent bastard, which is a compliment). Bastard can also mean phony or fake, like a bastard version of French that is not correct. When you think bastard, think illegitimate.
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.
See Examples For:
MMA is the bastard child of illegal street fights and martial arts, which has always made for a strange blend of freak-show sleaze and a culture of respect.
From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026
Ironically, the situation now is a bastard version of one reform favored by free market types: paying athletes without any pretense that they are real students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
It also suggests that the IMF, the utterly vital, eternally disavowable, brutally underloved bastard child of American intelligence, may not survive this latest and severest test of its abilities and resources.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2023
Gov't Mule is kind of the bastard child of the jam scene – the black sheep – because we're heavier than other jam bands.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2023
“When Robb Stark took up arms against the bastard Joffrey-called-Baratheon, White Harbor marched with him. Lord Stark has fallen, but his war goes on.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Beforehand, Salfordian frontman Shaun Ryder told BBC News it was "brilliant that those lazy bastards from London have decided to get off their bums and come up north for an hour or two".
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
The Renaissance, Jacob Burckhardt once wrote, was a golden age for bastards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
The day we stop celebrating and arguing about art is the day we’ll know the bastards have won, writes critic Mary McNamara.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
"And we will rebuild. No matter what these Russian terrorists and bastards may do, we will rebuild and restore everything," he said.
From Reuters ● Feb. 23, 2023
Dad makes that tiny sound that means Oh please Vera don’t make me go against every grain in my hippie freak body and make me give my money to those horrible corporate deep-frying bastards.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
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.
