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

As a coach sometimes you have to be the bad guy.

—Ed Jovanovski, quoted in Sports Illustrated

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

In other words, there is real risk — but lots of people are fighting to keep the proverbial bad guys out. — Caitlin Dewey, Vox, 29 Oct. 2026

My biggest thing was to escape being put in a box in the ghetto, playing violent bad guys. — Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026

Danny Trejo has played a Mexican revolutionary, a Mexican cop, a Mexican cartel assassin and, of course, a Mexican ex-con who kills bad guys with a machete. — Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026

But Tony Stewart was one of the most prominent faces of NASCAR, and for a long time was one of the best bad guys in sports. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for bad guy

• apply
• awry
• belie
• bely
• bigeye
• bonsai
• buckeye
• comply
• coxae
• decry
• defy
• deny