bad guy

noun

informal : the villain in a story : baddie

played the bad guy in the movie

informal : someone who is likened to the villain in a story: such as

: a criminal

Designed to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys and children …—

Popular Science

: 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

: 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

: 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 Others hone in on the world-building, painting Gotham in bright carnival colors filled with equally iridescent wackos or stripping it down to a monochrome shadow where bad guys emerge from every darkened corner. —

Ben Travers, IndieWire, 1 Aug. 2024 Iron Man, would return to the franchise to play supervillain Doctor Doom, solidifying the next bad guy for the series. —

Benjamin Vanhoose, Peoplemag, 31 July 2024 That’s why players play this brutal sport, and anyone who stands in their way is the enemy, or bad guy. —

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 25 July 2024 Over a brooding, stormy instrumental, Em takes the original song’s conceit — playing bad guy to Dr. Dre’s sounder mind — to pore over the damage that Slim has inflicted on his career and artistry. —

Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 13 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for bad guy

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