badger

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbæd͡ʒə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbæd͡ʒɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æd͡ʒə(ɹ)

From Middle English bageard (“marked by a badge”), from bage (“badge”), referring to the animal's badge-like white blaze, equivalent to badge +‎ -ard. Displaced earlier brock, from Old English brocc.

badger (plural badgers)

2. Any mammal of three subfamilies, which belong to the family Mustelidae: Melinae (Eurasian badgers), Mellivorinae (ratel or honey badger), and Taxideinae (American badger).
3. A native or resident of the American state, Wisconsin.
4. (obsolete) A brush made of badger hair.
5. (in the plural, obsolete, cant) A gang of robbers who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered.
6. (slang, cricket) A person who is very fond of cricket.

• (animal): brock
• (native or resident of Wisconsin): Wisconsinite

• (mammal): cete, colony

• cete
• meline
• sett, set
• Appendix: Animals

badger (third-person singular simple present badgers, present participle badgering, simple past and past participle badgered)

1. (transitive) To pester; to annoy persistently; to press.

   Synonyms: bait, hound; see also Thesaurus:pester

   He kept badgering her about her bad habits.

   • 2013 September 17, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 426 - Trans AND Gay:

     "Yeah? Cool. Just a warning: people are going to badger you about that. It's practically inevitable for gay trans people."

• badgerer

• badger on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mustelidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Mustelidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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

badger (plural badgers)

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.

• Badger (trade) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• barged, garbed

From English badge.

• IPA^(key): /ba.dʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

badger

1. to use an identity badge

   Avant de quitter la pièce, il ne faudra pas oublier de badger.

   Before you leave the room, you mustn't forget to swipe your badge.

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written badge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.