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

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

There’s no such thing as a good deal with a bad guy — or vice versa. —Margot MacHol Bisnow, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025

One level tasked me with ripping chunks from explosive rocks and tossing the makeshift bombs to solve puzzles and beat bad guys. —Jordan Minor, PC Magazine, 18 June 2025

The action was carefully planned so that bad guys would fall out of frame just before the explosives were detonated, because Wiseman wanted the pyrotechnics to be practical and not added during post. —Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 6 June 2025

Safe only has like four real bad guys; most of the guys are just guards showing up for work like the Red Shirts in Star Trek. —James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 5 June 2025

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