Word.ws English Dictionary

bastard

/ˈbɑːs.təd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/ˈbæs.tæd/

bastard noun: a person who was born out of wedlock, and hence often considered an illegitimate descendant.

Noun

bastard (countable and uncountable, plural bastards)

  1. (dated) A person who was born out of wedlock, and hence often considered an illegitimate descendant.
    • Jarrod: Who are you?
      Heath: Your father’s bastard son.1965, The Big Valley
  2. A mongrel (biological cross between different breeds, groups or varieties).
  3. (derogatory, offensive, usually, vulgar) A contemptible, inconsiderate, overly or arrogantly rude or spiteful person.
    • Some bastard stole my car while I was helping an injured person.
    • You sick bastard!
  4. (endearing, humorous) A man, a fellow, a male friend.
    • lucky bastard
    • funny bastard
  5. (often preceded by ‘poor’) A suffering person deemed deserving of compassion.
    • Poor bastard, I feel so sorry for him.
    • These poor bastards started out life probably in bad or broken homes.
  6. (informal) A child who does not know their father.
  7. (informal) Something extremely difficult or unpleasant to deal with.
    • Life can be a real bastard.
  8. A variation that is not genuine; something irregular or inferior or of dubious origin, fake or counterfeit.
    • The architecture was a kind of bastard, suggesting Gothic but not being true Gothic.
    • There were also made good and politic laws that parliament, against usury, which is the bastard use of money...1622, Francis Bacon, Bacon's History of the Reign of King Henry VII, Cambridge University Press, published 1902, page 62
  9. A bastard file.
  10. A kind of sweet wine.
    • […] we ſhall haue all the world drinke browne & white baſtard.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  11. A sword that is midway in length between a short-sword and a long sword; also bastard sword.
  12. An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from syrups that have been boiled several times.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A large mould for straining sugar.
  2. A writing paper of a particular size.
    Synonyms:
    copy
  3. (UK, derogatory) A Eurosceptic Conservative MP, especially in the government of John Major.
    • If you are a politician, you make sure that you know all such references in case an interviewer suddenly asks, 'Are you one of the bastards in Mr Major's cabinet?'2000, Peter Hobday, Managing the message, Allison & Busby
    • While John Major managed to get the Maastricht Treaty through parliament, despite the efforts of the “bastards” in his cabinet, the 2001 Conservative General Election campaign was fought on entirely eurosceptic lines.2011, Duncan Hall, A2 Government and Politics: Ideologies and Ideologies in Action, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 62

Adjective

bastard (comparative more bastard, superlative most bastard)

  1. Of or like a bastard (illegitimate human descendant).
  2. Of or like a bastard (bad person).
  3. Of or like a mongrel, bastardized creature/cross.
  4. Of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc).
    • a bastard musket
    • a bastard culverin
    1. Spurious, lacking authenticity: counterfeit, fake.
      • that bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vicesa. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn]...
    2. Imperfect; not spoken or written well or in the classical style; broken.
      • Of what race could these people be? Their language was a bastard Arabic, and yet they were not Arabs; I was quite sure of that.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
  5. Used in the vernacular name of a species to indicate that it is similar in some way to another species, often (but not always) one of another genus.
    • bastard gemsbok; bastard mahogany; bastard toadflax; bastard trumpeter
  6. (Ireland, UK, vulgar) Very unpleasant.
    • I’ve got a bastard headache.
  7. Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.
  8. (theater lighting) Consisting of one predominant color blended with small amounts of complementary color; used to replicate natural light because of their warmer appearance.
    • A bastard orange gel produces predominantly orange light with undertones of blue.

Interjection

  1. (rare, vulgar) Exclamation of strong dismay or strong sense of being upset.
    • Jack says, “Oh! Bastard! I’m hit!” That bullet had to have come in the busted back window and how it missed Johnnie to hit Jack I don’t know.2001, Stephen King, “The Death of Jack Hamilton”, in Everything's Eventual, Simon and Schuster, published 2007, →ISBN, page 90
    • “Yes, I’m hhhhowwwwwwcch!” she yelped as she stubbed her toe against the bedpost. “Shit, shit, fuck, bastard, shit, crap!”2004, Cecelia Ahern, PS, I Love You, Hyperion, →ISBN, page 7

Verb

bastard (third-person singular simple present bastards, present participle bastarding, simple past and past participle bastarded)

  1. (obsolete) To bastardize.
    • After her husband's death she was matter of tragedy , having lived to see her brother beheaded , and her two sons deposed from the crown , bastarded in their blood1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...

Proper noun capitalized: Bastard

Bastard (plural Bastards)

  1. A surname from Old French.

bastard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

bastard in Hindi

person born to unmarried parents
हरामज़ादा harāmzādā

bastard in Tamil

வேசைக்குப் பிறந்தவர், வேசை மகன், தரம் குறைந்தவர், பண்பு கெட்டவர், முறையான பெற்றோர்க்குப் பிறவாதவர், குண்டகன்

bastard in Urdu

person born to unmarried parents
حرامزادہ harāmzādā

bastard in Bengali

জারজ সন্তান, অকৃত্তিম, মিশ্রিত কিছু, কটু অর্থে খারাপ ব্যক্তি
More languagesFewer languages
bastard in Telugu
జారజుడు jārajuḍu
bastard in Malayalam
പുലയാടി pulayāṭi
bastard in Kannada
ಜಾರಜ, ಜಾರಪುತ್ರ, ಮಿಂಡರಿಗೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದವನು
bastard in Sanskrit
प्रसृतजः prasṛtajaḥ, बन्धुल bandhula
bastard in Nepali
कमीना, कमीने
bastard in Pashto
حرامي harāmi, ارامي arāmi
bastard in Tagalog
anak sa labas
bastard in Arabic
اِبْن زِنًى ibn zinan, بِنْت زِنًى bint zinan, اِبْنَة زِنًى
bastard in Malay
bangsat, pukimak, anjing, babi
bastard in Indonesian
bastar, blasteran, keparat, berengsek
bastard in Persian
حرامزاده harâm-zâde, روسپیزاده ruspi-zâde, مول mul, ویج vij
bastard in Thai
ลูกนอกสมรส, ไอ้เวร
bastard in Vietnamese
chó chết, đẻ hoang

Examples of bastard in a sentence

  • Don't be such a bastard already!
  • I assume that bastard won't be seen again.
  • Get over here, you old bastard!
  • “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” “You bastards!”1997, South Park television program
  • In the UK, Conservative Maastricht rebels (the 'bastards') almost brought down Conservative Prime Minister John Major's government.2014 September 23, Stanley Johnson, Stanley, I Resume: Further recollections of an exuberant life, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN:
  • But there is no doubt that the “bastards,” who had tormented so many Tory leaders over the years, had won.2020 September 3, Ian Buruma, The Churchill Complex: The Rise and Fall of the Special Relationship from Winston and FDR to Trump and...

Synonyms of bastard

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bastard

Forms of bastard

Noun
pluralbastards
alternative pronunciation-spellingbastid
Adjective
comparativemore bastard
superlativemost bastard
Verb
third-person singular presentbastards
present participlebastarding
past participlebastarded
pastbastarded
Proper noun
pluralBastards

Plural of bastard: bastards

Origin of bastard

From Middle English bastard, bastarde, from Old English bastard (used as an epithet), from Anglo-Norman bastard, Old French bastart (“illegitimate child”), perhaps via Medieval Latin bastardus, of obscure origin. Likely from Frankish *bāst (“marriage, relationship”) + Old French -ard, -art (pejorative suffix denoting a specific quality or condition). Frankish *bāst derives from a North Sea Germanic variety of Proto-Germanic *banstuz (“bond, connection, relationship, marriage with a second woman of lower status”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”) and is related to West Frisian boaste (“marriage, matrimony”), Middle Dutch bast (“lust, heat”), and more distantly to English boose (“cow-stall”). The term probably originally referred to a child from a polygynous marriage of heathen Germanic custom — a practice not sanctioned by the Christian churches. Alternatively, and less likely, Old French bastart may have originated from the Old French term fils de bast (“packsaddle son”), meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (medieval saddles often doubled as beds while travelling). However chronology makes this difficult, as bastard is attested in Old French from 1089...

Words formed from bastard

Phrases with bastard

32 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about bastard

What does bastard mean?
Bastard means a person who was born out of wedlock, and hence often considered an illegitimate descendant.
What is bastard in Hindi?
Bastard in Hindi is हरामज़ादा (harāmzādā). See Bastard meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bastard in a sentence?
Don't be such a bastard already!
What part of speech is bastard?
Bastard can be a noun, an adjective, an interjection or a verb.
How do you pronounce bastard?
Bastard is pronounced /ˈbɑːs.təd/ (UK).
What is the plural of bastard?
The plural of bastard is bastards.

Words near bastard in the dictionary

  1. bastadin
  2. bastadins
  3. Bastani
  4. Bastanis
  5. Bastar
  6. bastard
  7. bastard agrimony
  8. bastard alkanet
  9. bastard ashlar
  10. bastard bar
  11. bastard bars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bastard (page history and authors); Bastard (page history and authors); bastard (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bastard (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); പുലയാടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); bastard (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bastard (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-bastard.ogg, En-us-bastard.oga.

Cite this entry: “bastard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bastard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.