Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Badger

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.

Origin: Of uncertain origin; perh. Fr. An old verb badge to lay up provisions to sell again.

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 (M. Vulgaris), called also brock, inhabits the north of Europe and Asia; another species (Taxidea Americana or Labradorica) inhabits the northern parts of North America. See teledu.

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

(Science: zoology) see dachshund.

Origin: oe. Bageard, prob. Fr. Badge _ -ard, in reference to the white mark on its forehead. See Badge.