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

Sean was not afraid to level an F-bomb upon someone who was a bully or a bad actor. —Peter White, Deadline, 22 July 2024

Not only is every piece of architecture required to authenticate itself on every boot, but the zero-trust system monitors system accuracy and identifies anomalies and illicit communication packets in real-time in case a bad actor gains access to the vehicle's systems. —Joe Salas, New Atlas, 20 July 2024

Lipton was also concerned about potential bad actors who now had access to and ease in searching databases. —Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2024

Kim Tucker said there are bad actors and fair operators in real estate investing, just as in any industry. —Kevin Hardy, Kansas City Star, 24 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above