meanie

American  

[mee-nee] / ˈmi ni /

Or meany

noun

Informal.

meanies plural

1. a mean, small-minded, petty, or selfish person.

   The children said their teacher was a real meanie.

2. a villain, as in a movie or book.

   Syndrome is the meanie in “The Incredibles.”

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meanie British  

/ ˈmiːnɪ /

noun

1. a miserly or stingy person

2. a nasty ill-tempered person

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• meanies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of meanie

First recorded in 1925–30; mean ² + -ie

Example Sentences

If the Houston board, a government entity, had confined itself to calling Wilson a stinker and a meanie, this would merely have been government exercising its right to speak its mind.

From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2021

My husband then began egging our children on with comments about how it’s too bad we can’t have a pet because mom is being a meanie.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2021

“Evil doesn’t care if you’re nice,” he declares, which is certainly the case with the villain of the piece, a meanie with a robotic claw named — what else?

From Seattle Times • Dec. 23, 2019

Benedict Cumberbatch voices the green meanie who threatens Christmas in Who-ville in this computer-animated retelling of the holiday classic.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2018

Being the meanie that he was, he moved slowly, getting great pleasure from Father Time’s fear.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles