bad hat
1
8.3
- noun
- Offensive
:
sinvergüenza
Examples
-
" Dub's a bad hat," I told Tippy on the way home.
Fiction book (1998) -
Everyone knows that he's a bad hat who always finds a way to cheat at games.
-
Despite his charming demeanor, he's known as a bad hat in the community for his dishonest actions.
-
The local authorities decided to warn residents about the bad hat who was scamming people in the neighborhood.
Synonyms
104
1.6
A person who harms others on purpose or does wrong things
69
4.1
A person who causes problems for other people on purpose
16
4.4
A person in a group who causes trouble for others
9
6.5
A person who behaves badly and damages a group or its work
8
3.8
A bad character in a story who causes trouble for the hero, often in children's stories
5
5.6
A person who cannot be trusted and may lie or steal
2
6.0
A person who causes small trouble by playing tricks or starting gossip
A person who causes problems by starting arguments or fights
How Troublesome
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal meanings of 'bad' (morally wrong) and 'hat' (a head covering or informal label for a role) do not combine to yield 'a person who deliberately causes trouble or is dishonest.' 'Bad hat' is an idiomatic/slang label whose sense is not predictable from its parts, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would likely not infer this meaning.
Etymology
Bad hat comes from old American slang where a person's hat stood for their character. One popular story says people pictured someone with a 'bad' hat — a person you could not trust — so bad hat came to mean someone who deliberately causes trouble or behaves dishonestly.