good guy
Americannoun
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a moral or noble person; a hero or someone perceived as one.
The film's twist is that the monster turns out to be the good guy.
-
any person who is regarded as habitually prone to doing good things or as being morally correct.
There are times in this job where we don't feel like the good guys.
Etymology
Origin of good guy
An Americanism first recorded in 1920–25
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.
Russo is a good guy, yes, and one for whom we root, but in his effort to protect his daughter, he plumbs seemingly bottomless depths of humiliation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026
In any Hollywood film, the good guy must be wronged; only thereafter does he wreak havoc.
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
By all accounts, including the video evidence, Alex Pretti was a law-abiding, good guy with a gun, who stepped in to protect an unarmed woman from an assault.
From Slate • Jan. 25, 2026
"He has just always had something about him that makes him a star," she says, adding that for most of his career, he's "always maintained a good guy persona".
From BBC • Dec. 12, 2025
"And you're a hell of a good guy. Anybody ever tell you you were a good guy?"
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
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.
