bad guy
Americannoun
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an evil or malicious person; a villain or someone perceived as one.
The actor now makes his living guest starring as the bad guy on many different TV shows.
Business consulting can turn you into the bad guy for people who don't want to know their idea could fail.
-
any person who does bad or harmful things, especially habitually.
In tech security, you just have to live with the fact that the bad guys are already ahead of you.
Etymology
Origin of bad guy
An Americanism first recorded in 1920–25
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.
The script never varies: He vows to snare the bad guys.
From Los Angeles Times
“Snakes aren’t the bad guys,” he protests—this isn’t a spoiler, as it appears in the trailer.
“Fine, take the criminals, take the bad guys,” he continued.
From Los Angeles Times
She kills a passel of bad guys and then finds out she’s pregnant.
Think of it as the 1960s equivalent of what Edward Snowden was doing, except legal and aimed at the bad guys.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
