badgers

Variant of badger

badger definition

badger (baj′ər)

noun pl. badgers -·ers or badger -·er

  1. any of certain mammals of a family (Mustelidae) of burrowing carnivores (esp. genera Taxidea and Meles) of North America, Europe, and Asia, with a broad back, thick, short legs, and long claws on the forefeet
  2. the fur of a badger
  3. Austral.
    1. wombat
    2. bandicoot
  4. ☆ Informal a person born or living in Wisconsin, called the Badger State

Etymology: 16th-c. term for earlier brock < bageard < ? ME bage, badge + -ard, -ard, in allusion to white spot on face

transitive verb

to torment as if baiting a badger; nag

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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