badger

«badger» in Mova's school dictionary: a wild animal with grey fur, short legs and a black and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a badger, badgers); verb (badger, badgers, badgered, badgering)

meaning for a pupil

1) A badger is a wild animal with grey fur, short legs and a black and white striped face that lives in tunnels underground and comes out at night. tree →

2) To badger someone means to keep asking them again and again for something until they get annoyed. tree →

sense in the lessons

In nature lessons in the UK, Ireland and North America, badgers are nocturnal animals that dig setts (burrows) and eat worms, insects and roots. In everyday life, to badger is what children do when they keep asking for a treat. Phrases: badger sett, badger someone into something, stop badgering me.

examples

• A badger dug a hole under our fence. tree →
• Badgers come out at night to look for worms. tree →
• A badger's home is called a sett. tree →
• We saw a badger's black and white face in the torchlight. tree →
• Stop badgering me about the ice cream! tree →
• My little brother badgered Mum until she said yes. tree →
• The American badger lives in open grasslands. tree →
• Old father badger was a great hunter. tree →

note

Countable: a badger, badgers. Verb: badgered, badgering. A badger's home is a sett (UK) or burrow. Badgers are wild; never try to touch or feed one, as they can bite hard. Badger also is the name of a football team mascot in places like Wisconsin.

In the corpora

• Real bears and honey badgers raid bee nests and eat the protein-rich grubs as well as the honey.
• The Badger is closer to life: real badgers dig huge old homes called setts and stay underground through cold spells.
• But real badgers live in family groups, not alone, and they love company of their own kind.
• Badgers are very clean: they drag in fresh grass and bracken for bedding and dig special toilet pits away from the sett.
• Badgers are protected by law in Britain, so nobody may harm a badger or block or dig into a sett.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «badger» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.