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

She’s been found and retrieved by Thurman’s all-purpose bad guy, who goes by the supervillain handle Discord. —David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2025

The problem was, the fans did not view the bronzed Hogan, billed from Venice Beach, California, as a bad guy, despite how his character was being scripted to act. —Marc Raimondi june 25, Literary Hub, 25 June 2025

Unable or unwilling to settle on just who exactly the actual bad guys are supposed to be, the show would kill off one villain after another, though some would miraculously survive only to be killed off again an episode or two later. —Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 June 2025

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