bad guy

noun

1

informal : the villain in a story : baddie

played the bad guy in the movie

2

informal : someone who is likened to the villain in a story: such as

a

: a criminal

Designed to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys and children …

—Popular Science

b

: a military enemy

… a decision that owes more to parochial conflicts within the Armed Forces than to doing the best job of surveilling bad guys.

—Stuart F. Brown

c

: someone who deserves to be blamed or criticized for causing a bad situation

Meanwhile, it's the environmentalists who are now portrayed as the bad guys, hiring lots of lawyers, consorting with congressmen …

—Eric Alterman

d

: a person who treats other people harshly or strictly : a person who says or does unpopular things

Parenting isn't just about having beautiful kids and being busy. It's about dealing with problems, and your success as a parent depends on your willingness to be the bad guy. If you aren't willing to be the bad guy, you shouldn't be a parent.

—Roy Bragg

Examples of bad guy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So does Preston ever get unnerved by how good her real-life husband is at playing bad guys? —Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 12 Dec. 2024

Both series are modern takes on the Indy formula, with different shades of good guy adventurers searching for relics and righteously kicking bad guy ass to prevent dangerous artifacts from falling into the wrong hands. —Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 10 Dec. 2024

Gideon informs them about the Mandalorians’ plans to take back their home planet of Mandalore, while also questioning the whereabouts of Admiral Thrawn, a very notable bad guy in the Star Wars canon. —Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 10 Dec. 2024

There's no getting away from the fact Kraven is ostensibly a bad guy, with a horrible history of violence since his comic debut in 1964's The Amazing Spider-Man #15. —Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1