ar-baiting and bull-baiting. The badger-ward, who was usually
attached to a bear-garden, kept his badger in a large box. Whenever a
drawing was arranged, bets were made as to how many times the dog, usually
a bull-terrier, would _draw_ the badger, _i.e._ pull it out of its box,
within a given number of minutes. As soon as the dog succeeded in doing
this the animals were parted, often by the attendants biting their tails,
and the badger was again shut up in his box, which, at a signal from the
time-keeper, was again opened. Another method of baiting this animal is
thus described in the _Encyclopaedia of Sport_: "They dig a place in the
earth about a yard long, so that one end is four feet deep. At this end a
strong stake is driven down. Then the badger's tail is split, a chain put
through it, and fastened to the stake with such ability that the badger can
come up to the other end of the place. The dogs are brought and set upon
the poor animal who sometimes destroys several dogs before it is killed."
The colloquial "to badger" (_i.e._ worry or tease) is a metaphorical
derivative, and "drawing a badger" is similarly used in a figurative sense.

BADGER, a term of uncertain derivation (possibly derived from _bagger_, in
allusion to the hawker's bag) for a dealer in food, such as corn or
victuals (more expressly, fish, butter or cheese), which he has purchased
in one place and brought for sale to another place; an itinerant dealer,
corresponding to the modern hawker or huckster. An English statute of 1552
which summarized, and prescribed penalties against, the offences of
engrossing, forestalling and regrating, specially exempted badgers from
these penalties, but required them to be licensed by three justices of the
peace for the county in which they dwelt. A statute of 1562-1563, after
declaring that many people took up the trade of badgering "seeking only to
live easily and to leave their honest labour," enacted that badgers should
be licensed for a year only, should be householders of three years'
standing in the county in which they were licensed, and should enter into
recognizances not to engross or forestall. An act of 1844 abolished the
offence of badgering, and repealed the statutes passed in relation to it.
The word is still in common use in country districts.

BADGHIS ("home of the winds"), a district on the north-west of Afghanistan,
between the Murghab and Hari Rud rivers, extending as far northward as the
edge of