Part 494

Badg"er, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Badgered (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. 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.

Badg"er*er (&?;), n. 1. One who badgers.

2. A kind of dog used in badger baiting.

Badg"er*ing, n. 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.]

Badg"er-legged` (&?;), a. Having legs of unequal length, as the badger was thought to have. Shak.

||Bad`i*a"ga (bd`"g or bd*yä"g), n. [Russ. badiaga.] (Zoöl.) 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.

||Ba"di*an (&?;), n. [F. badiane, fr. Per. bdin anise.] (Bot.) An evergreen Chinese shrub of the Magnolia family (Illicium anisatum), and its aromatic seeds; Chinese anise; star anise.

Ba*di"geon (b*dj"n), n. [F.] 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.

||Ba`di`nage" (&?;), n. [F., fr. badiner to joke, OF. to trifle, be silly, fr. badin silly.] Playful raillery; banter. "He . . . indulged himself only in an elegant badinage." Warburton.

Bad" lands" (&?;). Barren regions, especially in the western United States, where horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by cañons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands).

Bad"ly, adv. 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.

Bad"min*ton (&?;), n. [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.

Bad"ness, n. The state of being bad.

||Bæ"no*mere (&?;), n. [Gr. bai`nein to walk + -mere.] (Zoöl.) One of the somites (arthromeres) that make up the thorax of Arthropods. Packard.

Bæ"no*pod (&?;), n. [Gr. bai`nein to walk + -pod.] (Zoöl.) One of the thoracic legs of Arthropods.

||Bæ"no*some (&?;), n. [Gr. bai`nein to walk + -some body.] (Zoöl.) The thorax of Arthropods. Packard.

Baff (bf), n. A blow; a stroke. [Scot.] H. Miller.

Baf"fle (bf"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-flng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bgr uneasy, poor, or bgr, n., struggle, bægja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. bäppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.]

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

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.