Baddish Bad"dish adjective Somewhat bad; inferior. Jeffrey.

Bade Bade (băd). A form of the past tense of Bid .

Badge Badge noun [ Late Latin bagea , bagia , sign, probably of German origin; confer Anglo-Saxon beág , beáh , bracelet, collar, crown, Old Saxon bōg- in comp., Anglo-Saxon būgan to bow, bend, G. biegen . See Bow to bend.] 1. A distinctive mark, token, sign, or cognizance, worn on the person; as, the badge of a society; the badge of a policeman. "Tax gatherers, recognized by their official badges ." Prescott.

2. Something characteristic; a mark; a token.

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge .
Shak.

3. (Nautical) A carved ornament on the stern of a vessel, containing a window or the representation of one.

Badge Badge transitive verb To mark or distinguish with a badge.

Badgeless Badge"less adjective Having no badge. Bp. Hall.

Badger Badg"er noun [ Of uncertain origin; perhaps from an old verb badge to lay up provisions to sell again.] 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. [ Now dialectic, Eng.]

Badger Badg"er noun [ Middle English bageard , probably from badge + -ard , in reference to the white mark on its forehead. See Badge , noun ] 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 . (Zoology) See Dachshund .

Badger Badg"er transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Badgered ; present participle & verbal noun Badgering .] [ For sense 1, see 2d Badger ; for 2, see 1st Badger .] 1. To tease or annoy, as a badger when baited; to worry or irritate persistently.

2. To beat down; to cheapen; to barter; to bargain.

Badger game Badg"er game The method of blackmailing by decoying a person into a compromising situation and extorting money by threats of exposure. [ Cant]

Badger State Badger State Wisconsin; -- a nickname.

Badger-legged Badg"er-legged` adjective Having legs of unequal length, as the badger was thought to have. Shak.

Badgerer Badg"er·er noun 1. One who badgers.

2. A kind of dog used in badger baiting.

Badgering Badg"er·ing noun 1. The act of one who badgers.

2. The practice of buying wheat and other kinds of food in one place and selling them in another for a profit. [ Prov. Eng.]

Badiaga Bad`i·a"ga (băd`ĭā"gȧ or bȧd*yä"gȧ) noun [ Russian badiaga .] (Zoology) A fresh-water sponge (Spongilla) , common in the north of Europe, the powder of which is used to take away the livid marks of bruises.

Badian Ba"di·an noun [ French badiane , from Persian bādiān anise.] (Botany) An evergreen Chinese shrub of the Magnolia family ( Illicium anisatum ), and its aromatic seeds; Chinese anise; star anise.

Badigeon Ba·di"geon (bȧ*dĭj"ŭn) noun [ French] A cement or paste (as of plaster and freestone, or of sawdust and glue or lime) used by sculptors, builders, and workers in wood or stone, to fill holes, cover defects, or finish a surface.

Badigeon Ba·di"geon (bȧ*dĭj"ŭn) noun [ French] A cement or distemper paste (as of plaster and powdered freestone, or of sawdust and glue or lime) used by sculptors, builders, and workers in wood or stone, to fill holes, cover defects, etc.

Badinage Ba`di`nage" noun [ French, from badiner to joke, Old French to trifle, be silly, from badin silly.] Playful raillery; banter. "He . . . indulged himself only in an elegant badinage ." Warburton.

Badly Bad"ly adverb In a bad manner; poorly; not well; unskillfully; imperfectly; unfortunately; grievously; so as to cause harm; disagreeably; seriously.

» Badly is often used colloquially for very much or very greatly , with words signifying to want or need .

Badminton Bad"min·ton noun [ From the name of the seat of the Duke of Beaufort in England.] 1. A game, similar to lawn tennis, played with shuttlecocks.

2. A preparation of claret, spiced and sweetened.

Badness Bad"ness noun The state of being bad.

Baff Baff (băf) noun A blow; a stroke. [ Scot.] H. Miller.

Baff Baff (băf) transitive verb & i. [ Scot., probably imitative; confer German baff , interj. imitating the sound of a shot.] To strike; to beat; to make a baff. [ Scot. or Golf]

Baff Baff noun A blow; stroke; thud ; specif. (Golf) , a stroke in which the sole of the club hits the ground and drives the ball aloft. [ Scot. or Golf]

Baffle Baf"fle (băf"f'l) transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Baffled (-f'ld); present participle & verbal noun Baffling (-flĭng).] [ Confer Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icelandic bāgr uneasy, poor, or bāgr , noun , struggle, bægja to push, treat harshly, Old French beffler , beffer , to mock, deceive, dial. German bäppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.]

1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [ Obsolete]

He by the heels him hung upon a tree,
And baffled so, that all which passed by
The picture of his punishment might see.
Spenser.

2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.

The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim.
Cowper.

3. To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." De Quincey.

A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all.
South.

Calculations so difficult as to have baffled , until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations.
Prescott.

The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
Locke.

Baffling wind (Nautical) , one that frequently shifts from one point to another.

Syn. -- To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.

Baffle Baf"fle intransitive verb 1. To practice deceit. [ Obsolete] Barrow.

2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [ R.]

Baffle Baf"fle noun A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [ R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South.

Baffle Baf"fle noun 1. (Engineering) (a) A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated. (b) A grating or plate across a channel or pipe conveying water, gas, or the like, by which the flow is rendered more uniform in different parts of the cross section of the stream; -- used in measuring the rate of flow, as by means of a weir.

2. (Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. [ Local, U. S.]

Bafflement Baf"fle·ment (băf"f'l*m e nt) noun The process or act of baffling, or of being baffled; frustration; check.

Baffler Baf"fler (băf"flẽr) noun One who, or that which, baffles.

Baffling Baf"fling (băf"flĭng) adjective Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- Baff"ling*ly , adverb -- Baff"ling*ness , noun

Baffy Baff"y (bȧf"ȳ) noun [ See Baff , transitive verb ] (Golf) A short wooden club having a deeply concave face, seldom used.

Baft Baft (băft). noun Same as Bafta .

Bafta Baf"ta (băf"tȧ) noun [ Confer Persian baft woven, wrought.] A coarse stuff, usually of cotton, originally made in India. Also, an imitation of this fabric made for export.

Bag Bag (băg) noun [ Middle English bagge ; confer Icelandic baggi , and also Old French bague , bundle, Late Latin baga .] 1. A sack or pouch, used for holding anything; as, a bag of meal or of money.

2. A sac, or dependent gland, in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance; as, the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents; the bag of a cow.

3. A sort of silken purse formerly tied about men's hair behind, by way of ornament. [ Obsolete]

4. The quantity of game bagged.

5. (Com.) A certain quantity of a commodity, such as it is customary to carry to market in a sack; as, a bag of pepper or hops; a bag of coffee.

Bag and baggage , all that belongs to one. -- To give one the bag , to disappoint him. [ Obsolete] Bunyan.

Bag Bag transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bagged (băgd); present participle & verbal noun Bagging ] 1. To put into a bag; as, to bag hops.

2. To seize, capture, or entrap; as, to bag an army; to bag game.

3. To furnish or load with a bag or with a well filled bag.

A bee bagged with his honeyed venom.
Dryden.

Bag Bag intransitive verb 1. To swell or hang down like a full bag; as, the skin bags from containing morbid matter.

2. To swell with arrogance. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

3. To become pregnant. [ Obsolete] Warner. (Alb. Eng.).

Bag net Bag" net` (nĕt`). A bag-shaped net for catching fish.

Bagasse Ba·gasse" noun [ French] Sugar cane, as it comes crushed from the mill. It is then dried and used as fuel. Also extended to the refuse of beetroot sugar.

Bagatelle Bag`a·telle" (băg`ȧ*tĕl") noun [ French, from Italian bagatella ; confer Prov. Italian bagata trifle, Old French bague , Pr. bagua , bundle. See Bag , noun ] 1. A trifle; a thing of no importance.

Rich trifles, serious bagatelles .
Prior.

2. A game played on an oblong board, having, at one end, cups or arches into or through which balls are to be driven by a rod held in the hand of the player.

Baggage Bag"gage (băg"gaj) noun [ French bagage , from Old French bague bundle. In senses 6 and 7 confer French bagasse a prostitute. See Bag , noun ] 1. The clothes, tents, utensils, and provisions of an army.

» "The term itself is made to apply chiefly to articles of clothing and to small personal effects." Farrow.

2. The trunks, valises, satchels, etc., which a traveler carries with him on a journey; luggage.

The baronet's baggage on the roof of the coach.
Thackeray.

We saw our baggage following below.
Johnson.

» The English usually call this luggage .

3. Purulent matter. [ Obsolete] Barrough.

4. Trashy talk. [ Obsolete] Ascham.

5. A man of bad character. [ Obsolete] Holland.

6. A woman of loose morals; a prostitute.

A disreputable, daring, laughing, painted French baggage .
Thackeray.

7. A romping, saucy girl. [ Playful] Goldsmith.

Baggage master Bag"gage mas`ter One who has charge of the baggage at a railway station or upon a line of public travel. [ U.S.]

Baggager Bag"ga·ger noun One who takes care of baggage; a camp follower. [ Obsolete] Sir W. Raleigh.

Baggala Bag"ga·la noun [ Arabic "fem. of baghl a mule." Balfour .] (Nautical) A two-masted Arab or Indian trading vessel, used in the Indian Ocean.

Baggily Bag"gi·ly adverb In a loose, baggy way.

Bagging Bag"ging noun 1. Cloth or other material for bags.

2. The act of putting anything into, or as into, a bag.

3. The act of swelling; swelling.

Bagging Bag"ging noun [ Etymol. uncertain.] Reaping peas, beans, wheat, etc., with a chopping stroke. [ Eng.]

Baggy Bag"gy adjective Resembling a bag; loose or puffed out, or pendent, like a bag; flabby; as, baggy trousers; baggy cheeks.

Bagman Bag"man noun ; plural Bagmen A commercial traveler; one employed to solicit orders for manufacturers and tradesmen. Thackeray.

Bagnio Bagn"io noun [ Italian bagno , from Latin balneum . Confer Bain .] 1. A house for bathing, sweating, etc.; -- also, in Turkey, a prison for slaves. [ Obsolete]

2. A brothel; a stew; a house of prostitution.

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