Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A wicked or evil person; a scoundrel.
- noun A dramatic or fictional character who is typically at odds with the hero.
- noun Something said to be the cause of particular trouble or an evil.
- noun Obsolete A peasant regarded as vile and brutish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A member of the lowest class of unfree persons during the prevalence of the feudal system; a feudal serf.
- noun Hence An ignoble or base-born person generally; a boor, peasant, or clown.
- noun A man of ignoble or base character; especially, one who is guilty or capable of gross wickedness; a scoundrel; a knave; a rascal; a rogue: often used humorously in affectionate or jocose reproach.
- Of or pertaining to, or consisting of, villains or serfs.
- Characteristic of or befitting a villain or slave; servile; base; villainous.
- To debase; degrade; villainize.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To debase; to degrade.
- adjective rare Villainous.
- noun (Feudal Law) One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant.
- noun rare A baseborn or clownish person; a boor.
- noun A vile, wicked person; a man extremely depraved, and capable or guilty of great crimes; a deliberate scoundrel; a knave; a rascal; a scamp.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun this sense?) (The addition of
quotations indicative of this usage is being sought): Avile ,wicked person. - noun The bad person in a work of fiction; often the main antagonist of the
hero . - noun Archaic form of
villein . - verb obsolete, transitive To
debase ; todegrade .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the principal bad character in a film or work of fiction
- noun a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Their main villain is a criminal who was teleported with them and thus has the same powers as them.
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Tom’s Review Forum 2009
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The main villain is the trickster Coyote in Southwestern Native American (and Norse) myths, and other supernatural characters come from Native American legends.
Archive 2008-06-01 2008
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By the end, it seems to be revealed that their main villain is this weird-looking nekomimi guy with a not-so-good fashion sense.
Anime Preview: Fall 2008 First Impressions – Batch 2 « Undercover 2008
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Jensen Ackles brings a suitable cocky menace to the title villain, but he too sounds a bit like a Will Friedle, who played a protege of the elder Bruce Wayne in the futuristic Batman Beyond.
Scott Mendelson: Blu Ray Review: Batman: Under the Hood (2010) 2010
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These circumstances combined to attach to the term villain ideas of crime and guilt, in so forcible a manner that the application of the epithet even to those to whom it legally belonged became an affront, and was abstained from whenever no affront was intended.
A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive John Stuart Mill 1839
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Kevin Spacey lets his mean streak run wild in 'Richard III' at BAM Alastair Muir/AP Kevin Spacey as the title villain in Shakespeare's 'Richard III'
NYDN Rss JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ 2012
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NO '' (1962): Sean Connery's first screen outing as James Bond pits novelist Ian Fleming's superspy against the title villain (Joseph Wiseman), who is interfering with rocket launches.
Berks county news 2009
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The term villain stems from Roman times and was used to describe someone who worked the land but was without honour.
iTnews Australia 2009
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I love how you forgot that Ozzy being a villain is a spoiler.
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“After years of taking my sons to the movies and having them leave the theatre with the villain as their favorite character, we decided to make a movie where the villain is the protagonist.”
Kristianto2010 commented on the word villain
Usually, those problems found their source in Tom’s arch-enemy, Crabby Appleton. To this day, I remember how this villain was described on the show. He was “Crabby Appleton—rotten to the core.
February 28, 2011