villain

[ vil-uhn ]
See synonyms for villain on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.

  2. a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.

  1. a person or thing considered to be the cause of something bad: Fear is the villain that can sabotage our goals.

Origin of villain

1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English vilein, vilain “churlish rustic, serf,” from Middle French, from Vulgar Latin and Medieval Latin villānus “a farm servant, farmhand”; see origin at villa, -an

Other words for villain

Other words from villain

  • sub·vil·lain, noun
  • un·der·vil·lain, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use villain in a sentence

  • A volley did sound, and instantly; but it came from the rocks above, and three of the villains fell.

  • Why shouldn't poor Lucy seek consolation as did the other villains and heroes of romance?

  • My only hope was that one of the losing villains would kill me out of spite with the dagger he held in his clenched fist.

    Balsamo, The Magician | Alexander Dumas
  • They did not care now to take the prize; they wished to send her, with her crew of villains, to the bottom of the sea.

  • These Tory leaders are better people individually than the average; why cast them for the villains of the piece?

    The New Machiavelli | Herbert George Wells

British Dictionary definitions for villain

villain

/ (ˈvɪlən) /


noun
  1. a wicked or malevolent person

  2. (in a novel, play, film, etc) the main evil character and antagonist to the hero

  1. often jocular a mischievous person; rogue

  2. British police slang a criminal

  3. history a variant spelling of villein

  4. obsolete an uncouth person; boor

Origin of villain

1
C14: from Old French vilein serf, from Late Latin vīllānus worker on a country estate, from Latin: villa

Derived forms of villain

  • villainess, fem n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012