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

That same year, Wait Until Dark scared me to death when bad guys terrorized a blind Audrey Hepburn. —Pete Hammond, Deadline, 22 May 2026

Don’t let people think that Dev is a bad guy or Hasan is a bad guy. —Lacey Rose, HollywoodReporter, 20 May 2026

During his travels, Mandalorian Din Djarin comes across Grogu, a tiny, but powerful being who ends up helping Djarin in his efforts to wrangle bad guys. —Seth Jacobson, The Providence Journal, 7 May 2026

Swing through Harlem, fight bad guys with your electricity and invisibility powers, and just look dope. —George Yang, PC Magazine, 1 May 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