bad boy

English

Alternative forms

• bad-boy, badboy

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

bad boy (plural bad boys)

1. A man whose rebellious nature makes him dangerous or attractive.
   • 2012, Douglas MacKinnon, Vengeance Is Mine, →ISBN:

     Yeah, I fit the profile all right. Perfect made-to-order malcontent. Let's sign this bad boy up and sic him on somebody fast, before the foam dries on his mouth.

   • 2012, N. Arielli, B. Collins, Transnational Soldiers: Foreign Military Enlistment in the Modern Era, →ISBN:

     Among the 'students' receiving below average marks was 22-year-old Vsevolod Raube from Bobruisk, who was considered the 'bad boy of the party'.

   • 2012, Kendra Leigh Castle, Shadow Rising, →ISBN:

     Like so many dark and delicious bad boys, there's more to Damien than meets the eye.

   • 2022 November 6, Emma Garland, “Aaron Carter was the millennium’s bubblegum bad boy – and the victim of a rapacious music industry”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Born in the small town of Rockwood, east Tennessee, Carter’s bubblegum sound and mini-bad boy image made him the definitive millennium child star.

2. (slang) A male criminal.
3. (figuratively, slang) An undesirable or difficult task.

   Let's get this bad boy done!

4. (slang) A powerful or impressive product or item.

   Synonym: bad baby (humorous)

   • 1949 November-December, Floyd E. Low, “Keep that pitch UP!”, in The Instrumentalist, volume 4, Association for the Advancement of Instrumental Music, page 38:

     Many school music teachers and directors are not primarily clarinetists and, knowing little of the subtle intricacies of this "bad boy" of instruments, can teach little more than the fingering.

   • 1988, Writers Forum‎^[2], numbers 14-17, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs:

     […] he groaned as he twisted his arm over his head to follow the groove to the right wheel well, "if this bad boy connects right there, then it can't be a light."

   • 1992 November 16, “The POWERstation 220: Here today. More tomorrow. [Advertisement]”, in InfoWorld, volume 14, number 46, page 137:

     So isn't it time you took this bad boy for a test drive?

   • 2014, David Vengley, Mars Base Red Seven, →ISBN:

     “Oh yeah,I remember, you already bagged one of those bad boys backin the city.”Sal chuckled.

   • 2016, Max Dickins, My Groupon Adventure, →ISBN, page 93:

     This bad boy wasn't shy in letting us know either, as three of us struggled to pull it ashore. Again, it felt totally bizarre to be physically straining every sinew to drag a massive dangerous animal towards me.

5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bad,‎ boy.

See also

• baby
• big boy
• Chad
• tall, dark and handsome

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bad boy.

Noun

bad boy m (invariable)

1. bad boy (rebellious man)

   Synonym: ragazzaccio

   • 2020 September 7, Roberto Nepoti, “Box office Italia: 'Tenet' e 'After 2' dominano, ma dietro c'è il vuoto [Italy Box Office: 'Tenet' and 'After 2' dominate, but there's a void behind them]”, in la Repubblica‎^[3]:

     ... già mercoledì 2, giorno dell’uscita italiana, si è riversato nelle 733 sale che lo programmano per seguire gli sviluppi della tormentata storia d’amore fra Tessa e il bad boy Hardin.

     ... already Thursday the 2nd, the day of the Italian release, it poured into 733 theaters that have scheduled it to follow the developments of the tormented love story between Tessa and the bad boy Hardin.