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
Issie LapowskyA perennial diplomatic bad actor, North Korea has already rattled its sabers at the opening of the Obama administration.—Alex Kingsbury
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
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
Jane E. Brody We have special ducts throughout the vapor bath that carry away all the toxic bad actors. —PC Today
PC Today Examples of bad actor in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
These ideas propagate because the internet provides bad actors with a platform to distribute them.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 28 May 2025
In 2024, Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected an additional 139,000 developer enrollments, preventing bad actors from submitting their apps to the App Store in the first place, the iPhone maker claimed.
—Kate O'Flaherty, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025
These bad actors target and harm American consumers and US carriers like Verizon for their own profit, by diverting unlocked trafficked devices to consumers in foreign countries.
—ArsTechnica, 21 May 2025
From Salisbury to Baltimore to Hagerstown, bad actors have targeted our communities with the goal of dividing us and turning neighbors into strangers, then strangers into enemies.
—Will Fries, Baltimore Sun, 8 May 2025
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Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 28 May 2025
In 2024, Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected an additional 139,000 developer enrollments, preventing bad actors from submitting their apps to the App Store in the first place, the iPhone maker claimed.
—Kate O'Flaherty, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025
These bad actors target and harm American consumers and US carriers like Verizon for their own profit, by diverting unlocked trafficked devices to consumers in foreign countries.
—ArsTechnica, 21 May 2025
From Salisbury to Baltimore to Hagerstown, bad actors have targeted our communities with the goal of dividing us and turning neighbors into strangers, then strangers into enemies.
—Will Fries, Baltimore Sun, 8 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for bad actor
Cite this Entry
“Bad actor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bad%20actor. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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