[f. prec. sb.]

1

  1.  To make a badger of, bait like a badger; hence, to subject (one who cannot escape from it) to persistent worry or persecution; to pester, tease.

2

1794.  O’Keefe, Wild Oats, I. i. At home, abroad … you will still badger me!

3

1855.  Wood, Anecd. Anim. Life, 238. A ‘brock’ … led such a persecuted life, that to ‘badger’ a man came to be the strongest possible term for irritating, persecuting, and injuring him in every way.

4

1862.  Sat. Rev., 8 Feb., 154. The coarse expedients by which the Old Bailey advocate badgers and confuses a nervous witness.

5

  2.  dial. [f. BADGER sb.1] ‘To barter; to banter over a bargain; to beat down in price.’

6

1875.  in Whitby Gloss.; also in Gloss. of Manley & Corringham (Lincolnsh.)

7