bad boy

noun

|Updated on: 28 Jul 2018

Examples: bad boy in a Sentence

Definition of bad boy

: a person who flouts convention

a literary bad boy

See bad boy defined for English-language learners

Examples of bad boy in a Sentence

He has become known as the bad boy of the American television industry.

Recent Examples of bad boy from the Web

His edges may be tougher than some of his country singing peers, but his bad boy apathy was synonymous with rudeness.

— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Best and worst of Summerfest Day 10: Kip Moore, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Phantogram & more," 7 July 2018
Just listing off the ingredients of these bad boys — half turkey, half Italian, both hoagies smothered in oils, onions, meats, veggies, and cheese galore — is enough to make many mouths water.

— kristin balderas, Philly.com, "How the giant free hoagie from Wawa Hoagie Day gets made," 28 June 2018
The clip also shows Tess eavesdropping on a heated argument between her new mentor, Simone, and her bad boy crush, Jake.

— olivia harrison, refinery29.com, "The Wine You Should Drink With The Sweetbitter Season Finale," 8 June 2018
Lyft has never been short on whimsy (RIP, pink mustaches) or feel good vibes, especially when compared to Uber, which for years embraced a bad boy reputation.

— aarian marshall, WIRED, "Lyft Redesigns Its App—and Strategy—for the Age of Sharing," 7 June 2018
If Anthony Bourdain is the culinary industry's resident bad boy and Gordon Ramsay is every cook's harshest critic, then Guy Fieri is the food world's fun uncle.

— olivia harrison, refinery29.com, "Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives," 25 May 2018
And even if his persona was all tattoo and all bad boy, Bourdain was deeply moral, and deeply compassionate.

— corby kummer, The Atlantic, "Remembering Anthony Bourdain," 8 June 2018
This all-star pairing brought back memories of some of country music’s greatest bad boys of all time -- and each looked damn cool doing it.

— chuck dauphin, Billboard, "2018 CMT Music Awards: All The Performances Ranked," 6 June 2018
Solo leans into that rollicking atmosphere, making no illusions about the fact that this is a heist caper/origin story about one of pop culture's most arrogant, stubborn, lovable bad boys.

— refinery29.com, "Solo: A Star Wars Story," 15 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bad boy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of bad boy

1860

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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BAD BOY Defined for English Language Learners

bad boy

noun

Definition of bad boy for English Language Learners

: a man who says or does things that shock other people; especially : a young and successful man who does things in a way that is very different from the usual way