bad boy

noun

: a person who flouts convention
a literary bad boy

Examples of bad boy in a Sentence

He has become known as the bad boy of the American television industry.
Recent Examples on the Web There are archetypal good guy and bad boy figures who have been part of her life, whom everyone will transpose onto this material. Chris Willman, Variety, 19 Apr. 2024 And why not run up and down the beach in these bad boys? Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Apr. 2024 Luckily, the titular bad boys know their way around a brawl. Shania Russell, EW.com, 26 Mar. 2024 Batman The dads took a villainous turn as Gotham bad boys — the Riddler and the Joker in 2014 — but Batman (Gideon) and Batgirl (Harper) were there to thwart any evil shenanigans. Lydia Price, Peoplemag, 1 Nov. 2023 The band's heyday some 50 years back came at a time with the awards were decidedly not inclined to reward rock's bad boys. USA TODAY, 31 Jan. 2024 The men in question are English bad boy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Type A Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), both of whom fuel each other to push harder, race faster, and win more — until disaster inevitably strikes. Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 17 Jan. 2024 Jamie falls in love with West’s character, bad boy Landon Carter, while the two of them are rehearsing for a school play. Krystie Lee Yandoli, Rolling Stone, 23 Dec. 2023 But Arthur, Wilkinson’s manic litigator, has like 17 of those bad boys in the scene where he’s confronted by Clooney’s Clayton. Vulture, 30 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bad boy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bad boy was in 1860

Dictionary Entries Near bad boy

Cite this Entry

“Bad boy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bad%20boy. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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