baddie

plural baddies · alternative baddy

1. informalA person of bad character, especially in a work of fiction.

   In a western, the baddie typically wears a black hat.

   4 more examples

   All the press, the people and their elected leaders want to know who are the goodies and who are the baddies.

   1986 February 13, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “A Victory for Democracy”, in Yes, Prime Minister, season 1, episode 6, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne)

   What really gets to me in these goodies versus baddies movies is just how useless the baddies are.

   1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 127

   Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them… Hans, are we the baddies?

   2006, That Mitchell and Webb Look, season 1, episode 1 (television production), spoken by Fritz (Robert Webb)

   It’s important not to brand all the Russians as the baddies in the world.

   2022 May 2, Peter Coy, quoting Alexandra Vacroux, “Putin’s Failure to Hold on to the Educated Could Be the World’s Gain”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: antagonist, evildoer, villain · Antonyms: goodie

2. neologismslangAn attractive, confident woman, especially one who is a social media influencer.

   Aside from all of the abstract aspects (things we cannot see), you do not have to be an Instagram model/baddie to be a bad bitch.

   2020, Kenshi Hayabusa, The Road to Becoming a Bad Bitch: How I Overcame Low-Self Esteem and Negativity, Hayabusa Publishing, →ISBN, page 56

   3 more examples

   All day long, she can immerse herself in the world of crop tops and contour and IG “baddies” that do not look like any Indian girl she knows.

   2021, Priya-Alika Elias, Besharam: On Love and Other Bad Behaviors, Chicago: Chicago Review Press, →ISBN

   Miriam noted that Instagram had “Insta baddies,” who made names for themselves by posing “with scandalous clothes on and maybe they'll have a bunch of makeup on.”

   2021, Shauna Pomerantz, Miriam Field, “A TikTok Assemblage: Girlhood, Radical Media Engagement, and Parent–Child Generativity”, in Fiona Blaikie, editor, Visual and Cultural Identity Constructs of Global Youth and Young Adults: Situated, Embodied and Performed Ways of Being, Engaging and Belonging, Abingdon, England: Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN

   On Instagram, baddies and models of every ethnicity rock fashion and beauty trends that Black women either created or popularized: cornrows, oversized door knocker earrings, long, intricately designed acrylic nails, artfully sculpted baby hairs.

   2021, Zeba Blay, Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN

   1. broadlyneologismslangAn attractive person.

      I didn't realize my professor was dating an absolute baddie; I didn't know he had motion like that.