Definition of villain in English:

villain

noun ˈvɪlənˈvɪlən

1(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.
（电影、小说、戏剧中的）反面人物，反派角色
a pantomime villain
童话剧中的反派角色。
I have played more good guys than villains
我扮演的正面人物比反派角色多。
Example sentencesExamples
- For this act he inherited the role of pantomime villain and was booed roundly every time he touched the ball from then on.
- There's even a Hollywood feature film in production, featuring Ben Kingsley as evil villain the Hood, and due for release sometime next year.
- Chaucer was great, the villain was definitely evil, and the jousting/action scenes were very well done.
- To intensify the tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare has not one but two tragic characters and four villains.
- John Lawton writes spy novels in which the spies are villains, and there's no doubt about it.
- ‘It is a thriller where the main villain is not a person but AIDS itself,’ says Mr. Sarup.
- A normal thriller would have a villain, ready to strike at any moment and a hero in hot pursuit of the truth that will set him or her free.
- Voldermort is the evil villain in the novel, the murderer of Harry's parents, and the creature who plans to kill Harry.
- In Orwell's novel 1984, Big Brother is the evil villain.
- The plot involves three villains who inveigle a girl into prostitution in order to make ends meet.
- Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955.
- Are all of Shakespeare's villains ' motives intelligible?
- This ancestry may also account for the difficulty of explaining the motives of Shakespeare's villains.
- In the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service a villain dies horribly when he pitches on to a toboggan run and slides to the bottom - by which time he is hamburger.
- Of course the evil plot that the villain finally springs in the third act makes no particular sense.
- Sir Andrew describes the character as ‘one of the best villains in Victorian fiction’.
- While Woodward would gladly play the role of pantomime villain this summer when he takes his Lions to New Zealand, he is not so keen to have the boos and hisses directed at his players.
- In the tradition of really silly cod spy thrillers, the villains are out to set the world aflame and xXx will have to use all of his powers and lots of high tech stuff to save us all.
- They have characters and plots, heroes and villains.
- Wevers believes Iago is the most evil of his villains.
- This is a line that is greatly overused in action movies where an evil villain has plotted to take over the world… or whatever.
Synonyms
criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain
1. 1.1British informal A criminal.
  〈英，非正式〉罪犯
  some people have been tricked by villains with false identity cards
  有些人被持假身份证的犯罪分子欺骗过。
  the armed villains run off into the night
  Example sentencesExamples
  See how they posed and strutted among the terrified hostages, playing the part of big, scary villains.
  But in our post modern age they are charged with the amorphous task of policing the fear of crime ' as well as chasing actual villains.
  One villains' network put up for sale a database containing credit card details of 7,000 Britons.
  Sadly, the young villains cycled off.
  Although some villains were rejected, the M.E.N. probe found many were given the go-ahead despite divulging a string of convictions.
  As has been pointed out previously on spiked, the status of victim and villain are often interchangeable.
  The Chinese government's reaction - every so often - is to behead a bunch of obvious and odious villains.
  Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955.
  In the Sierra Nevada's Owens Valley, though, he is bitterly regarded as the villain who stole farmers' water and drove them to ruin.
  They will target villains living off their proceeds of crime and take them to court to strip them of their homes, cars and cash.
  Synonyms
  criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain
  transgressor, sinner
  gangster, gunman, bandit, brigand, desperado, thief, robber, mugger, swindler, fraudster, racketeer, terrorist, pirate
  rogue, scoundrel, wretch, heel, reprobate, charlatan, evil-doer, ruffian, hoodlum, hooligan, thug, delinquent, ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing
  informal crook, con, crim, baddy, shark, rat, snake, snake in the grass, dog, hound, louse, swine, scumbag, wrong 'un
  British informal, dated rotter, bounder, bad egg, stinker
  Law malfeasant, misfeasor, infractor
  dated cad, knave, rake
  archaic miscreant, blackguard
2. 1.2 The person or thing responsible for specified problems, harm, or damage.
  惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根
  the industrialized nations are the real environmental villains
  工业化国家是破坏环境的罪魁祸首。
  Example sentencesExamples
  The real villains of this piece are the weekend cottagers, who bring little to our Dales communities except inflated house prices.
  Why is it taking more than three months to investigate the real villain?
  BBC One is attempting to locate and vanquish the villain responsible.
  But the real villains in the story are Green and Allen.
  As for Australian ports' image of being environmental villains, Hirst says the tag is undeserved for the most part.
  Is the English ivy covering the unattractive fence in my backyard really an environmental villain?
  Ayurveds also agree that the real villains behind hypertension are smoking, alcohol consumption and high salt intake.
  The most egregious environmental villains in the tableware industry are probably plastic disposables.
  The real villains he fingers as the Newfoundlanders, who waded into the auks' domains and ravaged them without mercy.
  The real villain in this depiction is the devil.
  They even try to hold the country's governing council responsible for the villain's actions and demand immediate attacks.
  To me, he is a great villain, responsible for millions of deaths and for keeping the country in poverty.
  The main villains of the piece actually are two white middle-class lawyers and policemen.
  Trichinosis, a parasite found in pork, is the villain responsible for this accepted practice of burning of our precious pork chops.
  But in Furst's writing it's not always entirely clear who the real villains are.
  An obscene moral inversion has taken place in mainstream thinking, in which those who commit mass murder are viewed with sympathy while their victims are presented as the real villains.
  But neither Lecter, nor the terrible Mason, are the real villains of ‘Hannibal’.
  He and his pals have to find the real villain to clear Harry and stop the carnage.
  But it is the Scottish banks which are the real villains of the piece, all huddled together in an abysmal performance right at the bottom of the league table.
  Ever since I learnt about cities and transport planning, I realised that the real villains in urban chaos are personal vehicles.
2archaic
variant spelling of villein

Phrases

the villain of the piece

The person or thing responsible for all of the trouble or harm in a particular situation.
惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根
TV tends to be cast as the villain of the piece
电视往往被描绘成祸根。
Holdsworth was the villain of the piece when he missed an open goal
霍尔兹沃思在无人防守的情况下未能进球，一下子成了比赛失利的罪魁祸首。
Example sentencesExamples
- The villain of the piece had filled in a few blanks.
- Once, I would have argued that the bosses are the villains of the piece.
- The villain of the piece is generally acknowledged to be regionalism.
- Jones, the villain of the piece to Americans, was an Australian.
- The villain of the piece was an English cameraman, who forgot to press his safety switch.
- The locked-up wife is transformed into the villain of the piece.
- The villain of the piece here is the new breed of cricket fan.
- All the villains of the piece are suitably cast down.
- The villain of the piece is their predatory little-league baseball coach.
- He thinks she's trying to make him out to be the villain of the piece.

Origin

Middle English (in the sense 'a rustic, boor'): from Old French vilein, based on Latin villa (see villa).

In medieval England a villain was a feudal tenant who was entirely subject to a lord or manor—now usually spelled villein. People began to use villain as an insult implying someone was a low-born rustic, and the meaning deteriorated even further to ‘a person guilty of a crime, a criminal’. A bad character in a book was a villain from the 1820s. The word came from French and goes back to Latin villa ‘country house with an estate or farm’, from which villa (early 17th century) itself and village (Late Middle English) also derive.

Rhymes

Anguillan, Dillon, Dylan, kiln, Macmillan, Milne

Definition of villain in US English:

villain

nounˈvilənˈvɪlən

1(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.
（电影、小说、戏剧中的）反面人物，反派角色
I have played more good guys than villains
我扮演的正面人物比反派角色多。
cartoon villains determined to spread evil for evil's sake
Example sentencesExamples
- Are all of Shakespeare's villains ' motives intelligible?
- A normal thriller would have a villain, ready to strike at any moment and a hero in hot pursuit of the truth that will set him or her free.
- There's even a Hollywood feature film in production, featuring Ben Kingsley as evil villain the Hood, and due for release sometime next year.
- Chaucer was great, the villain was definitely evil, and the jousting/action scenes were very well done.
- They have characters and plots, heroes and villains.
- ‘It is a thriller where the main villain is not a person but AIDS itself,’ says Mr. Sarup.
- For this act he inherited the role of pantomime villain and was booed roundly every time he touched the ball from then on.
- Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955.
- Of course the evil plot that the villain finally springs in the third act makes no particular sense.
- To intensify the tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare has not one but two tragic characters and four villains.
- Voldermort is the evil villain in the novel, the murderer of Harry's parents, and the creature who plans to kill Harry.
- Wevers believes Iago is the most evil of his villains.
- John Lawton writes spy novels in which the spies are villains, and there's no doubt about it.
- This ancestry may also account for the difficulty of explaining the motives of Shakespeare's villains.
- In the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service a villain dies horribly when he pitches on to a toboggan run and slides to the bottom - by which time he is hamburger.
- Sir Andrew describes the character as ‘one of the best villains in Victorian fiction’.
- This is a line that is greatly overused in action movies where an evil villain has plotted to take over the world… or whatever.
- In the tradition of really silly cod spy thrillers, the villains are out to set the world aflame and xXx will have to use all of his powers and lots of high tech stuff to save us all.
- In Orwell's novel 1984, Big Brother is the evil villain.
- While Woodward would gladly play the role of pantomime villain this summer when he takes his Lions to New Zealand, he is not so keen to have the boos and hisses directed at his players.
- The plot involves three villains who inveigle a girl into prostitution in order to make ends meet.
Synonyms
criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain
1. 1.1 The person or thing responsible for specified trouble, harm, or damage.
  惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根
  the industrialized nations are the real environmental villains
  工业化国家是破坏环境的罪魁祸首。
  Example sentencesExamples
  But neither Lecter, nor the terrible Mason, are the real villains of ‘Hannibal’.
  He and his pals have to find the real villain to clear Harry and stop the carnage.
  The most egregious environmental villains in the tableware industry are probably plastic disposables.
  BBC One is attempting to locate and vanquish the villain responsible.
  The real villain in this depiction is the devil.
  Is the English ivy covering the unattractive fence in my backyard really an environmental villain?
  Ever since I learnt about cities and transport planning, I realised that the real villains in urban chaos are personal vehicles.
  Ayurveds also agree that the real villains behind hypertension are smoking, alcohol consumption and high salt intake.
  But the real villains in the story are Green and Allen.
  But in Furst's writing it's not always entirely clear who the real villains are.
  An obscene moral inversion has taken place in mainstream thinking, in which those who commit mass murder are viewed with sympathy while their victims are presented as the real villains.
  Why is it taking more than three months to investigate the real villain?
  To me, he is a great villain, responsible for millions of deaths and for keeping the country in poverty.
  Trichinosis, a parasite found in pork, is the villain responsible for this accepted practice of burning of our precious pork chops.
  The main villains of the piece actually are two white middle-class lawyers and policemen.
  They even try to hold the country's governing council responsible for the villain's actions and demand immediate attacks.
  As for Australian ports' image of being environmental villains, Hirst says the tag is undeserved for the most part.
  The real villains he fingers as the Newfoundlanders, who waded into the auks' domains and ravaged them without mercy.
  The real villains of this piece are the weekend cottagers, who bring little to our Dales communities except inflated house prices.
  But it is the Scottish banks which are the real villains of the piece, all huddled together in an abysmal performance right at the bottom of the league table.
2archaic
variant spelling of villein

Origin

Middle English (in the sense ‘a rustic, boor’): from Old French vilein, based on Latin villa (see villa).

词汇	villain
释义	Definition of villain in English: villain noun ˈvɪlənˈvɪlən 1(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. （电影、小说、戏剧中的）反面人物，反派角色 a pantomime villain 童话剧中的反派角色。 I have played more good guys than villains 我扮演的正面人物比反派角色多。 Example sentencesExamples For this act he inherited the role of pantomime villain and was booed roundly every time he touched the ball from then on. There's even a Hollywood feature film in production, featuring Ben Kingsley as evil villain the Hood, and due for release sometime next year. Chaucer was great, the villain was definitely evil, and the jousting/action scenes were very well done. To intensify the tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare has not one but two tragic characters and four villains. John Lawton writes spy novels in which the spies are villains, and there's no doubt about it. ‘It is a thriller where the main villain is not a person but AIDS itself,’ says Mr. Sarup. A normal thriller would have a villain, ready to strike at any moment and a hero in hot pursuit of the truth that will set him or her free. Voldermort is the evil villain in the novel, the murderer of Harry's parents, and the creature who plans to kill Harry. In Orwell's novel 1984, Big Brother is the evil villain. The plot involves three villains who inveigle a girl into prostitution in order to make ends meet. Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955. Are all of Shakespeare's villains ' motives intelligible? This ancestry may also account for the difficulty of explaining the motives of Shakespeare's villains. In the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service a villain dies horribly when he pitches on to a toboggan run and slides to the bottom - by which time he is hamburger. Of course the evil plot that the villain finally springs in the third act makes no particular sense. Sir Andrew describes the character as ‘one of the best villains in Victorian fiction’. While Woodward would gladly play the role of pantomime villain this summer when he takes his Lions to New Zealand, he is not so keen to have the boos and hisses directed at his players. In the tradition of really silly cod spy thrillers, the villains are out to set the world aflame and xXx will have to use all of his powers and lots of high tech stuff to save us all. They have characters and plots, heroes and villains. Wevers believes Iago is the most evil of his villains. This is a line that is greatly overused in action movies where an evil villain has plotted to take over the world… or whatever. Synonyms criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain 1.1British informal A criminal. 〈英，非正式〉罪犯 some people have been tricked by villains with false identity cards 有些人被持假身份证的犯罪分子欺骗过。 the armed villains run off into the night Example sentencesExamples See how they posed and strutted among the terrified hostages, playing the part of big, scary villains. But in our post modern age they are charged with the amorphous task of policing the fear of crime ' as well as chasing actual villains. One villains' network put up for sale a database containing credit card details of 7,000 Britons. Sadly, the young villains cycled off. Although some villains were rejected, the M.E.N. probe found many were given the go-ahead despite divulging a string of convictions. As has been pointed out previously on spiked, the status of victim and villain are often interchangeable. The Chinese government's reaction - every so often - is to behead a bunch of obvious and odious villains. Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955. In the Sierra Nevada's Owens Valley, though, he is bitterly regarded as the villain who stole farmers' water and drove them to ruin. They will target villains living off their proceeds of crime and take them to court to strip them of their homes, cars and cash. Synonyms criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain transgressor, sinner gangster, gunman, bandit, brigand, desperado, thief, robber, mugger, swindler, fraudster, racketeer, terrorist, pirate rogue, scoundrel, wretch, heel, reprobate, charlatan, evil-doer, ruffian, hoodlum, hooligan, thug, delinquent, ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing informal crook, con, crim, baddy, shark, rat, snake, snake in the grass, dog, hound, louse, swine, scumbag, wrong 'un British informal, dated rotter, bounder, bad egg, stinker Law malfeasant, misfeasor, infractor dated cad, knave, rake archaic miscreant, blackguard 1.2 The person or thing responsible for specified problems, harm, or damage. 惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根 the industrialized nations are the real environmental villains 工业化国家是破坏环境的罪魁祸首。 Example sentencesExamples The real villains of this piece are the weekend cottagers, who bring little to our Dales communities except inflated house prices. Why is it taking more than three months to investigate the real villain? BBC One is attempting to locate and vanquish the villain responsible. But the real villains in the story are Green and Allen. As for Australian ports' image of being environmental villains, Hirst says the tag is undeserved for the most part. Is the English ivy covering the unattractive fence in my backyard really an environmental villain? Ayurveds also agree that the real villains behind hypertension are smoking, alcohol consumption and high salt intake. The most egregious environmental villains in the tableware industry are probably plastic disposables. The real villains he fingers as the Newfoundlanders, who waded into the auks' domains and ravaged them without mercy. The real villain in this depiction is the devil. They even try to hold the country's governing council responsible for the villain's actions and demand immediate attacks. To me, he is a great villain, responsible for millions of deaths and for keeping the country in poverty. The main villains of the piece actually are two white middle-class lawyers and policemen. Trichinosis, a parasite found in pork, is the villain responsible for this accepted practice of burning of our precious pork chops. But in Furst's writing it's not always entirely clear who the real villains are. An obscene moral inversion has taken place in mainstream thinking, in which those who commit mass murder are viewed with sympathy while their victims are presented as the real villains. But neither Lecter, nor the terrible Mason, are the real villains of ‘Hannibal’. He and his pals have to find the real villain to clear Harry and stop the carnage. But it is the Scottish banks which are the real villains of the piece, all huddled together in an abysmal performance right at the bottom of the league table. Ever since I learnt about cities and transport planning, I realised that the real villains in urban chaos are personal vehicles. 2archaic variant spelling of villein Phrases the villain of the piece The person or thing responsible for all of the trouble or harm in a particular situation. 惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根 TV tends to be cast as the villain of the piece 电视往往被描绘成祸根。 Holdsworth was the villain of the piece when he missed an open goal 霍尔兹沃思在无人防守的情况下未能进球，一下子成了比赛失利的罪魁祸首。 Example sentencesExamples The villain of the piece had filled in a few blanks. Once, I would have argued that the bosses are the villains of the piece. The villain of the piece is generally acknowledged to be regionalism. Jones, the villain of the piece to Americans, was an Australian. The villain of the piece was an English cameraman, who forgot to press his safety switch. The locked-up wife is transformed into the villain of the piece. The villain of the piece here is the new breed of cricket fan. All the villains of the piece are suitably cast down. The villain of the piece is their predatory little-league baseball coach. He thinks she's trying to make him out to be the villain of the piece. Origin Middle English (in the sense 'a rustic, boor'): from Old French vilein, based on Latin villa (see villa). In medieval England a villain was a feudal tenant who was entirely subject to a lord or manor—now usually spelled villein. People began to use villain as an insult implying someone was a low-born rustic, and the meaning deteriorated even further to ‘a person guilty of a crime, a criminal’. A bad character in a book was a villain from the 1820s. The word came from French and goes back to Latin villa ‘country house with an estate or farm’, from which villa (early 17th century) itself and village (Late Middle English) also derive. Rhymes Anguillan, Dillon, Dylan, kiln, Macmillan, Milne noun.1 phr. Definition of villain in US English: villain nounˈvilənˈvɪlən 1(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. （电影、小说、戏剧中的）反面人物，反派角色 I have played more good guys than villains 我扮演的正面人物比反派角色多。 cartoon villains determined to spread evil for evil's sake Example sentencesExamples Are all of Shakespeare's villains ' motives intelligible? A normal thriller would have a villain, ready to strike at any moment and a hero in hot pursuit of the truth that will set him or her free. There's even a Hollywood feature film in production, featuring Ben Kingsley as evil villain the Hood, and due for release sometime next year. Chaucer was great, the villain was definitely evil, and the jousting/action scenes were very well done. They have characters and plots, heroes and villains. ‘It is a thriller where the main villain is not a person but AIDS itself,’ says Mr. Sarup. For this act he inherited the role of pantomime villain and was booed roundly every time he touched the ball from then on. Ripley is the ambiguous, charming villain in Patricia Highsmith's iconic series of novels who has fascinated readers since he first appeared in 1955. Of course the evil plot that the villain finally springs in the third act makes no particular sense. To intensify the tragedy of King Lear, Shakespeare has not one but two tragic characters and four villains. Voldermort is the evil villain in the novel, the murderer of Harry's parents, and the creature who plans to kill Harry. Wevers believes Iago is the most evil of his villains. John Lawton writes spy novels in which the spies are villains, and there's no doubt about it. This ancestry may also account for the difficulty of explaining the motives of Shakespeare's villains. In the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service a villain dies horribly when he pitches on to a toboggan run and slides to the bottom - by which time he is hamburger. Sir Andrew describes the character as ‘one of the best villains in Victorian fiction’. This is a line that is greatly overused in action movies where an evil villain has plotted to take over the world… or whatever. In the tradition of really silly cod spy thrillers, the villains are out to set the world aflame and xXx will have to use all of his powers and lots of high tech stuff to save us all. In Orwell's novel 1984, Big Brother is the evil villain. While Woodward would gladly play the role of pantomime villain this summer when he takes his Lions to New Zealand, he is not so keen to have the boos and hisses directed at his players. The plot involves three villains who inveigle a girl into prostitution in order to make ends meet. Synonyms criminal, lawbreaker, outlaw, offender, felon, convict, jailbird, malefactor, wrongdoer, black hat, supervillain 1.1 The person or thing responsible for specified trouble, harm, or damage. 惹祸的人，为害者；造成伤害的东西，祸根 the industrialized nations are the real environmental villains 工业化国家是破坏环境的罪魁祸首。 Example sentencesExamples But neither Lecter, nor the terrible Mason, are the real villains of ‘Hannibal’. He and his pals have to find the real villain to clear Harry and stop the carnage. The most egregious environmental villains in the tableware industry are probably plastic disposables. BBC One is attempting to locate and vanquish the villain responsible. The real villain in this depiction is the devil. Is the English ivy covering the unattractive fence in my backyard really an environmental villain? Ever since I learnt about cities and transport planning, I realised that the real villains in urban chaos are personal vehicles. Ayurveds also agree that the real villains behind hypertension are smoking, alcohol consumption and high salt intake. But the real villains in the story are Green and Allen. But in Furst's writing it's not always entirely clear who the real villains are. An obscene moral inversion has taken place in mainstream thinking, in which those who commit mass murder are viewed with sympathy while their victims are presented as the real villains. Why is it taking more than three months to investigate the real villain? To me, he is a great villain, responsible for millions of deaths and for keeping the country in poverty. Trichinosis, a parasite found in pork, is the villain responsible for this accepted practice of burning of our precious pork chops. The main villains of the piece actually are two white middle-class lawyers and policemen. They even try to hold the country's governing council responsible for the villain's actions and demand immediate attacks. As for Australian ports' image of being environmental villains, Hirst says the tag is undeserved for the most part. The real villains he fingers as the Newfoundlanders, who waded into the auks' domains and ravaged them without mercy. The real villains of this piece are the weekend cottagers, who bring little to our Dales communities except inflated house prices. But it is the Scottish banks which are the real villains of the piece, all huddled together in an abysmal performance right at the bottom of the league table. 2archaic variant spelling of villein Origin Middle English (in the sense ‘a rustic, boor’): from Old French vilein, based on Latin villa (see villa).
随便看	loosen the purse strings loosen tongue loosen up loosen up loose off loose one's hold on looser loose rein looses loose scrum loose scrummage loose something off loose something off loosest loose sth off loosestrife loosestrifes loose tea loose tongue loose/vague statement loose woman loosey-goosey loosie loosing loot