badger

Meanings

Noun

• Any mammal of three subfamilies, which belong to the family Mustelidae: Melinae (Eurasian badgers), Mellivorinae (ratel or honey badger), and Taxideinae (subfamily) (American badger).
• A native or resident of the American state, Wisconsin.
• A brush made of badger hair.
• A crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered.
• 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.

Verb

• To pester, to annoy persistently; press.
• To pass gas; to fart.

Related

Similar words

• brock
• Wisconsinite

Origin

• From Middle English bageard ("marked by a badge"), from bage, referring to the animal's badge-like white blaze, equivalent to badge + -ard. Displaced earlier brock, from .
• Unknown (Possibly from "bagger". "Baggier" is cited by the OED in 1467-8)