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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Idiotic bad guys, a dull plot, and Reacher playing second fiddle to his own team all conspired to make this one of the worst seasons of action TV out there. —

Erik Kain, Forbes, 25 Dec. 2024 Like a shoddy police procedural with an easily-recognizable bad guy—the unshaven one with the heavy accent—the Christmas story has one villain in particular. —

N.t. Wright, TIME, 20 Dec. 2024 In some sense, Lili Infante shares the same worldview as a John Wick or James Bond movie—there are good guys, there are bad guys, and there’s a chase. —

Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2024 So does Preston ever get unnerved by how good her real-life husband is at playing bad guys? —

Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 12 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for bad guy