bad actor

noun

plural bad actors

: a person, group, country, etc. who purposely and usually repeatedly engages in very bad behavior (such as committing crimes or causing harm to others)

Giving users a way to prove that they're being harassed with, say, a screenshot or some other form of authentication could help Twitter catch bad actors, even after they've covered their tracks.

—Issie Lapowsky

A perennial diplomatic bad actor, North Korea has already rattled its sabers at the opening of the Obama administration.

—Alex Kingsbury

"We've got to break away from the notion," as the U.A.W.'s [United Auto Workers] director of public relations, Peter G. Laarman, puts it, "that labor is a 'bad actor' in the economy. …"

—Harry Stein

also : something that causes trouble, danger, or a problem

The bad actor in male pattern hair loss is DHT, a metabolic product of testosterone.

—Jane E. Brody

We have special ducts throughout the vapor bath that carry away all the toxic bad actors.

—PC Today

Examples of bad actor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In events like a ransomware attack or data deletion, bad actors can take control of systems and make operations nearly impossible for users. —Dave Friend, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024

Because the truth is that when decent people tune out, bad actors end up winning. —Sasha Abramsky, TIME, 26 Sep. 2024

Without a transcript of the trial, an appeal is hopeless and only encourages bad actors to take liberties with the truth and the law, aware there will be no repercussions. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 18 Sep. 2024

Apathy by California officials and confusion among counties over the records has enabled bad actors to buy dogs from out-of-state puppy mills and advertise them as locally bred, The Times found. —Melody Gutierrez, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above