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

Road to Perdition got a lot of press at the time for the fact that, hey, look, Hanks is playing a bad guy. —Tim Grierson, Vulture, 2 Nov. 2024

Anyway, since Catiline lost the conflict, he’s portrayed as a bad guy. —The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2024

That in itself was a gift after Avengers: Endgame staged an eye roll-inducing stunt in which all the female superheroes team up to fight a bad guy for five minutes. —Eliana Dockterman, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024

There's no denying that the Tumbler is one the coolest vehicles that Batman has ever fought Gotham City's bad guys in. —Matthew MacConnell, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1