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 But suspecting bad actors were at play, Segura dug deeper and uncovered an impersonation ploy, which involved trying to convince unsuspecting users to download something purporting to be the Slack app. —

Cheryl Winokur Munk, CNBC, 5 Sep. 2024 This could help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, in which a bad actor intercepts communications between your phone and lock, potentially giving them access to your vehicle. —

Emma Roth, The Verge, 5 Sep. 2024 That doesn’t mean that bad actors are getting a pass. —

Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, 15 Aug. 2024 The senator has called for a crackdown on cryptocurrency's utility for bad actors and its financial riskiness, while defending the current regulatory scheme. —

Brady Dale, Axios, 15 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for bad actor

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bad actor.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.