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View synonyms for

bad guy

[ bad gahy ]

noun

Informal.
  1. 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.

  2. 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.



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Word History and Origins

Origin of bad guy1

An Americanism first recorded in 1920–25
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“The more money we got, the more bad guys we take off the street, the safer America is,” Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” said he told members of Congress earlier this year.

From

His emotional vulnerability in opening up about his fractured relationship with his father and the death of his brother in 2021 has softened his 'bad guy' persona.

From

"People say that 'he's been happy to play the bad guy'. I wasn't happy about it," Eubank says.

From

"When you watch films, it's always like, 'Oh, these are the Gypsies, they're the bad guys,'" she explains.

From

Keefe’s meticulous research, empowered by tapes divulging long-held secrets, results in a story without good and bad guys: just a cause worth killing and dying for, and the moral morass of upholding intractable ideals.

From

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