meanie
Americannoun
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meanies
plural
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a mean, small-minded, petty, or selfish person.
The children said their teacher was a real meanie.
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a villain, as in a movie or book.
Syndrome is the meanie in “The Incredibles.”
noun
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a miserly or stingy person
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a nasty ill-tempered person
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of meanie
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:
The green meanie is up to his old tricks in this musical adaptation of the animated 1966 TV special based on the children’s book.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 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
Since the diva had slept in a crouch On a too-tiny rollaway couch, She came on like a meanie, Which suited Puccini, Who’d cast her as Tosca the Grouch.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 5, 2019
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
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According to the letter, Twitter is a bunch of big meanies that aren’t giving Musk the information he needs to close the transaction, specifically about bots and spam.
From The Verge ● Jun. 10, 2022
Even by the meanies in the City of Brotherly Love, who have alternated between serenading Simmons with lusty boos and defending his game through clenched teeth.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 25, 2021
Another gadget is an inflatable hug that immobilizes meanies in its enveloping embrace.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2019
Meanies do as meanies see, and Mr. Merkley never said a peep as Mr. Reid set a new low standard for public behavior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2016
Some established designers, grumbling privately because they did not want to be seen as meanies, see the change as symbolic of a broader watering-down of creativity in fashion.
From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2012
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.