Meanings
plural big bads
- A major adversary or antagonist of a piece of fiction.
Charlie, now menacingly equipped with a bionic arm, is these days in the service of new pantomime big bad, Poppy Adams, played with lysergic glee by Julianne Moore.
2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian
Origin
The noun was back-formed in 1998 in the episode “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is a nominalization derived from the long-established adjectival pattern within Big Bad Wolf and collocative constructions inspired by it (e.g., I tried to reason with her, but to her I'm just the big bad authority figure who can't be trusted).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
big bad. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20bad
“big bad.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20bad. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “big bad,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20bad.
Source: big bad on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.