What is "badger"

Badger \Badg"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Badgered; p. pr. & vb. n. Badgering.] [For sense 1, see 2d Badger; for 2, see 1st Badger.]

1. To tease or annoy, as a badger when baited; to worry or irritate persistently.

2. To beat down; to cheapen; to barter; to bargain.

Badger \Badg"er\, n. [Of uncertain origin; perh. fr. an old verb badge to lay up provisions to sell again.] 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. [Now dialectic, Eng.]

Badger \Badg"er\, n. [OE. bageard, prob. fr. badge + -ard, in reference to the white mark on its forehead. See Badge,n.]

1. A carnivorous quadruped of the genus Meles or of an allied genus. It is a burrowing animal, with short, thick legs, and long claws on the fore feet. One species ( Meles meles or Meles vulgaris), called also brock, inhabits the north of Europe and Asia; another species ( Taxidea taxus or Taxidea Americana or Taxidea Labradorica) inhabits the northern parts of North America. See Teledu.

2. A brush made of badgers' hair, used by artists.

   Badger dog. (Zo["o]l.) See Dachshund.

1520s, perhaps from bage "badge" (see badge) + -ard "one who carries some action or possesses some quality," suffix related to Middle High German -hart "bold" (see -ard). If so, the central notion is the badge-like white blaze on the animal's forehead (as in French blaireau "badger," from Old French blarel, from bler "marked with a white spot;" also obsolete Middle English bauson "badger," from Old French bauzan, literally "black-and-white spotted"). But blaze (n.2) was the usual word for this.\n

\nAn Old English name for the creature was the Celtic borrowing brock; also græg (Middle English grei, grey). In American English, the nickname of inhabitants or natives of Wisconsin (1833).

1790, from badger (n.), based on the behavior of the dogs in the medieval sport of badger-baiting, still practiced in 18c. England. Related: Badgered; badgering.

n. A native or resident of the American state of Wisconsin.

n. sturdy carnivorous burrowing mammal with strong claws widely distributed in the northern hemisphere

1. v. annoy persistently; "The children teased the boy because of his stammer" [syn: tease, pester, bug, beleaguer]

2. persuade through constant efforts

Badger refers to several species of short-legged, heavy-set carnivores in the weasel family.

Badger may also refer to:

A badger was, in English, a term of uncertain derivation (possibly derived from bagger, a bag or person carrying one) for a dealer in food or victuals which he had purchased in one place and carried for sale in another place. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest entry as being from Bristol in 1500, but there were bager(s)gates at York in 1243 and in Lincoln by 1252. It continued in use until the 19th century in Great Britain.

Badger was specifically applied to those dealing in grain for food, but was also applied generically to food commodity dealers. These included those dealing in grain for brewing (maltsters) or meal for bread-making, (mealmen) while others specialised in butter and cheese. Other grains, beans, peas or even vetch were traded in years when wheat and barley prices were high. The legislation also referred to kidders, drovers of livestock, laders and carriers.

The primary statutes were 4 & 5 Edward VI, c.14, 'An Act against Regrators, Forestallers and Ingrossers' 1552 and 5 Elizabeth I, c 12, 'An Act touching Badgers of Corn, and Drovers of Cattle to be licensed' 1563. These prescribed penalties against the offences of engrossing (speculative accumulation), forestalling, (buying produce before it was offered in market), and regrating (buying and re-selling within the same market or within 4 miles). They required badgers to be licensed by three justices of the peace at quarter sessions and required them to be married householders, of 30 years of age or more, resident in the county for at least 3 years. Household servants or Retainers could not be badgers. In some counties Justices seem to have regularly imposed limits on licences, specifying the markets where badgers could buy or sell, the quantities they could buy or the number of packhorses they could use for carrying goods between markets.

The preamble to the statute of 1562 declared that many people took up the trade of badgering seeking only to live easily and to leave their honest labour. As with much of the Tudor regulatory legislation enforcement this may better reflect the fears of central government than the reality of the trade. Although there were complaints about abuses by badgers enforcement action was variable. There are few surviving records of licensing before the Civil War, and it may not have been comprehensive. In that period most prosecutions for breaching the statutes were brought by common informers, whose reputation was poor. The licensing system is best seen as one of the powers which were available to the county justices of the peace, which they used when local conditions required or when ordered to so by the Privy Council. The legislation was repealed in 1772, but forestalling remained a common law offence until 1844.

The contribution made by badgers to the provisioning of provincial cities and industrial towns is hard to calculate. However, they must have been significant, as local justices complained when neighbouring justices or over-zealous informers restricted their activities. There are also records of local communities petitioning the justices for a nominated person to be licensed specifically to buy grain to supply their market.

The term is now obsolete.

Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae, which also includes the otters, polecats, weasels and wolverines. They belong to the caniform suborder of carnivoran mammals.

The 11 species of badger are grouped in three subfamilies: Melinae ( Eurasian badgers), Mellivorinae (the honey badger or ratel) and Taxideinae (the American badger). The Asiatic stink badgers of the genus Mydaus were formerly included within Melinae (and thus Mustelidae), but recent genetic evidence indicates these are actually members of the skunk family, placing them in the taxonomic family Mephitidae.

Badgers include the species in the genera Meles, Arctonyx, Taxidea and Mellivora. Their lower jaws are articulated to the upper by means of transverse condyles firmly locked into long cavities of the skull, so dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible. This enables the badgers to maintain their hold with the utmost tenacity, but limits jaw movement to hinging open and shut, or sliding from side to side without the twisting movement possible for the jaws of most mammals.

Badgers have rather short, fat bodies, with short legs for digging. They have elongated weasel-like heads with small ears. Their tails vary in length depending on species; the stink badger has a very short tail, while the ferret badger's tail can be long, depending on age. They have black faces with distinctive white markings, grey bodies with a light-coloured stripe from head to tail, and dark legs with light coloured underbellies. They grow to around in length including tail. The European badger is one of the largest; the American badger, the hog badger and the honey badger are generally a little smaller and lighter. The stink badgers are smaller still, and the ferret badgers are the smallest of all. They weigh around on average, with some Eurasian badgers weighing in at around .

The Badger is a fictional character, a superhero in American comic books publisher by the short-lived Capital Comics company and then First Comics. He was created by writer Mike Baron in 1983 and published through the early 1990s in a titular series that ended when First Comics also ceased all publications. Since the ongoing series ended in 1991, new Badger titles have been released through Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics and IDW Publishing.

Badger was a British rock band from the early 1970s.

1. redirect List of Breaking Bad characters#Brandon "Badger" Mayhew

The Badger Motor car company of Columbus, Wisconsin, United States, was an automobile company founded in 1910.

Badger is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Clarissa Munger Badger (1806–1889), American botanical artist
• George Edmund Badger (1795–1866), U.S. Senator from North Carolina
• George Percy Badger (1815–1888), English Anglican missionary and scholar of oriental studies
• Henry Badger (1900–1975), English cricketer
• Joseph Badger (ca. 1707–1765), American portrait artist
• Len Badger (born 1945), English footballer for Sheffield United 1962–1976
• Luther Badger (1785–1869), US congressman from New York
• Owen Badger (1871–1939), Wales national rugby player
• Pat Badger (born 1967), American musician
• Ruth Badger (born 1978), British reality television contestant and TV presenter
• Steve Badger (poker player), American poker player
• Steve Badger (swimmer) (born 1956), Australian and later Canadian former swimmer
• William Badger (1779–1852), American politician, governor of New Hampshire
• William Badger (shipbuilder) (1752–1830), American shipbuilder in Kittery, Maine