From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisha nasty piece of worka nasty piece of workBritish EnglishUNPLEASANT someone who is dishonest, violent, or likely to cause trouble → nasty
Examples from the Corpus
a nasty piece of work• Cyril and Wyatt had gone around together with that other boy, that Donald, who was a nasty piece of work.• You'd best steer clear of him, Manderley, he's a nasty piece of work. 