bad boy

plural bad boys · alternative bad-boy · alternative badboy

1. A man whose rebellious nature makes him dangerous or attractive.

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

   2012, Kendra Leigh Castle, Shadow Rising, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   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, Douglas MacKinnon, Vengeance Is Mine, →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, N. Arielli, B. Collins, Transnational Soldiers: Foreign Military Enlistment in the Modern Era, →ISBN

   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.

   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, →ISSN

2. slangA male criminal.
3. figurativelyslangAn undesirable or difficult task.

   Let's get this bad boy done!

4. slangA powerful or impressive product or item.

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

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

   4 more examples

   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.

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

   […] 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."

   1988, Writers Forum, numbers 14-17, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

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

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

   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.

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

   Synonyms: bad baby

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