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

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These services can alert you when bad actors open a fraudulent account with your information. —

Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY, 29 Jan. 2025 Relaxing enforcement measures, as proposed by the Trump administration, risks creating an environment where bad actors may flourish, ultimately undermining both investor protections and the broader goal of fostering digital asset adoption. —

Alexandra Andhov, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025 The more concerning issue is that if young, inexperienced people can find a way into an airplane’s wheel well, could a sophisticated bad actor follow a similar pathway to gain access to airplanes? —

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Chicago Tribune, 20 Jan. 2025 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 See all Example Sentences for bad actor