Badger

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈbædÊ’É™/
• GenAm IPA: /ˈbædÊ’Éš/
• Rhymes: -ædÊ’É™(ɹ)

From Middle English bageard ("marked by a badge"), from bage ("badge"), from Anglo-Norman bage ("emblem"), referring to the animal's badge-like white blaze.

Noun

1. A common name for any mammal of three subfamilies, which belong to the family Mustelidae: Melinae (Eurasian badgers), Mellivorinae (ratel or honey badger), and (American badger).
2. A native or resident of the American state, Wisconsin.
3. (obsolete) A brush made of badger hair.
4. (in the plural, obsolete, vulgar, cant) A crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered.

Synonyms

• (native or resident of Wisconsin) Wisconsinite

Holonyms

• (mammal) cete, colony

Derived terms

Full definition of badger

Verb

1. to pester, to annoy persistently.He kept badgering her about her bad habits.
2. (British, informal) To pass gas; to fart.

Synonyms

• (to fart)

Unknown ''(Possibly from "bagger". "Baggier" is cited by the OED in 1467-8)

Noun

1. (obsolete) An itinerant licensed dealer in commodities used for food; a hawker; a huckster; -- formerly applied especially to one who bought grain in one place and sold it in another.

Anagrams

• barged, garbed