Meaning & use
bastard
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableoffensivevulgar
A strong insult for someone considered unpleasant or cruel.
Grammar: Offensive; used as an insult, and mild or joking among close friends in some regions.
Patterns
- call someone a bastard
Calling someone a bastard is considered very rude.
The character is written as a cruel bastard in the novel.
He apologized for calling his colleague a bastard.
nouncountableoffensiveold-fashionedlegal
A child born to parents who were not married to each other.
Grammar: Dated and offensive in everyday use; found in older legal and historical texts.
Patterns
- a bastard child
Old laws treated a bastard child differently from other heirs.
The king acknowledged his bastard son.
Historical records list him as a bastard.
adjectivebefore a nountechnicalold-fashioned
Not genuine or not of a pure type, as in a hybrid or imitation.
Grammar: Technical or old-fashioned: a bastard file, bastard sword.
Patterns
- bastard sword
- bastard file
The knight carried a bastard sword.
A bastard file is a medium-rough tool.
The text is a bastard mix of two styles.
Word forms
| plural | bastards |
|---|
Common combinations
- bastard child
- The law once limited the rights of a bastard child.
- bastard son
- Records mention the king's bastard son.
- bastard sword
- The museum displays a bastard sword.
- lucky bastard
- Lucky bastard is sometimes said jokingly among close friends, though it is still crude.
- you bastard
- You bastard is a harsh insult in anger.
Synonyms and how they differ
- jerk
- Jerk is a much milder insult for a rude or selfish person.
- scoundrel
- Scoundrel is old-fashioned and almost humorous for a dishonest man.
- illegitimate
- Illegitimate is the formal, non-insulting term for a child born outside marriage.
- rogue
- Rogue suggests a charming rule-breaker and is far less offensive.
Word family
- bastardize verb
- to spoil something by changing it for the worse
- bastardy noun
- the state of being born outside marriage, an old legal term
- bastardization noun
- the act of corrupting something
Commonly confused: bastard or basted?
bastard vs basted
Basted means moistened with fat while cooking, and has no link to this word.
Practice
Which describes how the older legal sense of bastard is regarded today?
Choose one answer.
The sense for a child born outside marriage is now outdated and disrespectful, and illegitimate is the formal term. The other options do not describe its tone.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bastard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.