Villain
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A vile, wicked person.
"Oh moſt pernicious woman! / Oh Villaine, Villaine, ſmiling damned Villaine!"
- 2 a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately wordnet
- 3 A vile, wicked person.; An extremely depraved person, or one capable or guilty of great crimes.
- 4 the principal bad character in a film or work of fiction wordnet
- 5 A vile, wicked person.; A deliberate scoundrel.
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- 6 A low-born, abject person. archaic, derogatory
"Note the preſumption of this Scythian ſlaue: I tel thee villaine, thoſe that lead my horſe Haue to their names tytles of dignitie, And dar’ſt thou bluntly cal me Baiazeth?"
- 7 A character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero; an antagonist who is also evil or malevolent.
"Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels."
- 8 Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero (“the current player”).
"Let's discuss how to play if you are the chip leader (that is, if you have more chips than all the villains)."
- 9 Archaic form of villein (“feudal tenant, peasant, serf”). alt-of, archaic
- 1 To debase; to degrade . obsolete, transitive
Example
More examples"One murder makes a villain, millions a hero."
Etymology
Probably from Middle English vilein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin vīllānus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin vīlla, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. Doublet of villein.
Related phrases
More for "villain"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.