Badass

//ˈbædæs// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A belligerent or mean person; a person with an unpleasantly extreme appearance, attitudes, or behavior. US, slang

    "Don’t mess with that guy, he’s a real badass."

  2. 2
    A person considered impressive due to extreme attitudes, behavior or appearance wordnet
  3. 3
    A person considered impressive due to courage, skill, daring, audacity, and/or toughness. US, slang

    ""I'm a badass." (Jack Nicholson to a New York friend, early 1973.)"

  4. 4
    A mean or belligerent person wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Belligerent and troublesome. US, slang

    "Uncle Jr. was really quiet. Probably because he was a junior high school teacher and was around badass, hollerin' kids all day."

  2. 2
    Having an extreme appearance, attitude, or behavior that is considered admirable. US, slang

    "That tough guy looks badass."

Adjective
  1. 1
    being impressive due to extreme attitude or style wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
awesomeawesomebadbadbadassedcool

Example

More examples

"If you wanna survive in this prison, you'll have to be a badass."

Etymology

From bad + ass (“buttocks; one's self or person”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.