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

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As the ash settles in the coming weeks, bad actors will make their way to scorched neighborhoods, offering deals that may sound like a godsend during a traumatic time. —

Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2025 Buying the product outright likely would have allowed bad actors to skip more than a few steps while saving them quite a lot of cash. —

Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 9 Jan. 2025 Often bad actors post inflammatory content designed to evoke an emotional reaction, sometimes for personal gain. —

Melissa Mahtani, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2025 By cultivating homegrown talent, America ensures its critical industries remain resilient and protected from bad actors with bad intentions. —

Dan Perry, Newsweek, 2 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for bad actor