Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bad-ass n.

[SE bad + -ass sfx]

1. (US) an unpleasant, aggressive individual; thus superlative baddest ass n.

1956
196019701980199020002010
2012
[US]D. Howard ‘USMC Sl.’ AS XXXI:3 191: A marine who postures toughness is sarcastically labeled a bad ass or hairy-assed marine.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 303: You’re a real bad ass.
[US](con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 101: The J.D.’s emerged [...] Badass.
[US]P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 47: I’m beginning to look like a bad-ass. I went to the barber and got a crew cut, and it made me look even tougher.
[US]J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 232: In heaven, when the deal go down it’s the blackest and the baddest ass that makes the others deuce out.
[US](con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 289: Bikers got big hearts, you know? Like we just pretend to be bad asses.
[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 36: Jealous boyfriends and barroom bad-asses and all the rest.
Ariano & Sternbergh Hey! It’s That Guy! 1989: When you have more than one character on your resume who’s named after a kind of lethal blade, then chances are, you’re a bad-ass.
[US]L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] A Russian or Armenian badass.

2. (US) on bad = good model, a tough, admirable individual; also occas. metonymic for one’s whole body.

1969
19701980199020002010
2017
[US]C. Brown Mr Jive-Ass Nigger 149: ‘Hey, man, what’s happening with that blonde last night?’ [...] ‘Oh, beautiful pussy, sweet as honey’ [...] ‘You bad-ass’.
[US]D. Ponicsan Last Detail 2: Bad-Ass, wake up, it’s way the hell past reveille.
[US]B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water 57: Dolomite is the ultimate badass: he drinks, fights, and fucks, and in between seems to brag about what he has just done or will do next.
[US](con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 238: Glad to find out the badass was still alive.
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 132: He occupied an exalted spot against the wall, surrounded by lesser badasses.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 95: He obliged the ironbarred gallery with the Homeric ballad of that badass Dolomite.
[US]S. King Dreamcatcher 9: You want to hurry your bad ass back.
[US]F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 120: Everyone would know he was a badass.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 4: A book-slinger with a badge and a streetwise attitude, part bookworm, part badass.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] They’re badasses [...] always ready to go, ready to dance, just for the fuck of it.

3. (US black) an untrustworthy male.

1980
198019902000
2001
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 148: A number of terms were used to characterize the young man who could not be trusted [...] bad-ass, no-account nigger.
[US]N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 230: Got seven or eight former badasses in there with broken ribs.

In derivatives

badassery (n.)

the qualities implicit in sense 2.

2002
20052010
2014
in Assembly on Literature for Adolescents Rev. 30-31 210/2: I can SEE myself getting dragged into a whole heap of BADASSery.
[US]Spin Dec. 118: The Donnas’ Grease-lubed vision of badassery — dressing trashy, talking dirty, and putting out .
A. Hansen Weather Man [ebook] I still had a little badassery to my look. I mean, come on. I’m Dan Fucking Weatherly. I’m badassery personified, costume party or not.
[US]Eble UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 1: BADASSERY — qualities of a bad ass, i.e., skilled, stylish, cool: ‘Marcus Paige’s basket at the buzzer was badassery at its height.’.