badger

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

It's not helpful if you belittle and badger her until she is too defensive to rationally discuss the issue.

It's no time to badger her.  (source) Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, 2000

Cassie had a good friend who had transferred there some time earlier, and it wasn't long before she began to badger us about how much she disliked CFS, and how badly she wanted to be at Columbine.  (source) Misty Bernall, She Said Yes, 1999

In English class, everyone badgered Mr. Birkway to finish reading the journal entry that he had begun yesterday, the one about Mrs. Corpse and the body, but Mr. Birkway did not read any more journals.  (source) Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons, 1994

He'd been badgering us all day about taking the kerosene heater.  (source) Matthew Mather, Cyberstorm, 2013

And she doesn't seem to mind when I badger her with questions or paw through her things.  (source) Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss, 2010

I badgered him some more.  (source) Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl, 2000

It was shortly after this that he began badgering me to go into analysis.  (source) Susanna Kaysen, Girl Interrupted, 1993

Then Bella recognized the young man: It was Charles Livingston, the law student Yetta had badgered with her questions about union rights.  (source) Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uprising, 2007

Far from badgering me into submission, Moody's rage ultimately steeled my will.  (source) Betty Mahmoody, Not Without My Daughter, 1989

His face became tight as I badgered him relentlessly.  (source) Dave Pelzer, The Lost Boy, 1997

And on days when he felt particularly inspired, he spiced up his badgering a little,†  (source) Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003

They constantly badgered me to do the "James Brown" for them, a squiggling of the feet made famous by the "Godfather of Soul" himself, who back in the sixties was bigger than life.  (source) James McBride, The Color of Water, 1996

Wisconsin is called "The Badger" state because lead miners who settled there in the 1800s spent winter nights burrowed into the hillside like the mammals.

The word badger is thought to have come from a French word for "digger".†

Where I thought there would be pigs, a badger showed its teeth.  (source) Madeline Miller, Circe, 2018

Professor McGonagall was shouting at someone who, by the sound of it, had turned his friend into a badger.  (source) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998

In Montana, the only animals that dug holes like that were gophers and badgers, and Roy was positive there weren't many of those in Florida.  (source) Carl Hiassen, Hoot, 2002

Tummeler puffed up his chest in a gesture of badgerly defiance.†  (source) James A. Owen, Here, There be Dragons, 2006

Tyrion spied the red ox of the Presters, Lord Crakehall's brindled boar, the burning tree of Marbrand, the badger of Lydden.  (source) George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996

If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it, you'd be amazed at all the animals that would fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, Komodo dragons, crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants in untold numbers.  (source) Yann Martel, Life of Pi, 2001

Just beyond the tottering desk was a largemouth bass mounted on the wall; in every corner, along the walls, and atop the file cabinet and desk were stuffed critters: beavers, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, skunks, and a badger.  (source) Nicholas Sparks, True Believer, 2005

As if to emphasize her point, birds, deer, squirrels-red and gray-striped badgers, foxes, rabbits, wolves, frogs, toads, tortoises, and every other nearby animal forsook their hiding and began to rush madly about with a cacophony of yelps and cries.  (source) Christopher Paolini, Eldest, 2005

Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young black three-year-olds who thought they could.  (source) Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, 1894

Despite the anger and disbelief of his neighbors, he refused to kill predators or to allow hunting on his land, permitting animals that other ranchers exterminated — rattlesnakes, coyotes, badgers, ground squirrels, gophers, and prairie dogs — to flourish.  (source) Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 2001

Bill came home and started to badger Joy about washing the dishes.†  (source) Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore, 2010