BAD GUY Definition & Meaning

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bad guy

[ bad gahy ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

Informal.

an evil or malicious person; a villain or someone perceived as one:
The actor now makes his living guest starring as the bad guy on many different TV shows.
Business consulting can turn you into the bad guy for people who don't want to know their idea could fail.
any person who does bad or harmful things, especially habitually:
In tech security, you just have to live with the fact that the bad guys are already ahead of you.

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Origin of bad guy¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1920–25

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Examples have not been reviewed.

Some employees referred to them as “Armenian bad guys” or the “Southern California Armenian Mafia.”

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Is this something you're looking for, to get to be the bad guy?

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“Putting bad guys in jail was as apolitical as it gets,” Cohen wrote.

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"So, 20 years later - John, who's the ultimate good guy and always does the right thing - becomes a bad guy."

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He offs bad guys with comically little fuss, sometimes before he gets much information out of them.

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