Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/111

 6. (Wellington School).—A fellow who has got his 'badge' for play in the 2nd XV. at football.

verb. (popular).—To tease; to annoy; to confound.

1798. O. Keefe, Wild Oats, I., i. At home, abroad, you will still badger me.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxiv., p. 299. Tracy Tupman, and Augustus Snodgrass, were severally called into the box; both corroborated the testimony of their unhappy friend; and each was driven to the verge of desperation by excessive badgering.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. 'Which I meantersay,' cried Joe, 'that if you come into my place bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!'

The popular French equivalent of to badger is aguigner.

TO overdraw the badger, phr. (popular).—A figurative use of 'drawing the badger'; to overdraw one's banking account.

1843-4. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash, Because, as his comrades explain'd in flash, He had overdrawn his badger.

Badger State, subs. (American).—A popular name for the State of Wisconsin, and so called because of the badgers which once abounded there.

Bad Give-Away.—See Give away.

Bad-Halfpenny, subs. (popular).—A ne'er-do-weel; an allusion to the frequency with which, like bad coins, they are always 'turning up.' Cf., Bad-egg.

(Australian).—A failing speculation; a risky venture.

Bad Hat, subs. (popular).—The same as bad egg (q.v.).

1883. Besant, They Were Married, p. II., ch. ix., in Captain's Room, etc. There may be one or two bad hats among eldest sons; but there is not one, I am sure—there cannot be one—who would dare to take his wife's salary and deprive her of her son.

Bad Lot.—A term derived from auctioneering slang, and now generally used to describe a man or woman of indifferent morals.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. 'He's a bad'un, Mr. Lightfoot—a bad lot, sir, and that you know.'

1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. I., ch. ii. 'I am good for nothing,' he said, 'I am a bad lot. I wonder they don't hang such men as me.'

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. i. 'The impracticable Daniel has a certain kind of influence; and though he rarely cares to use it on his own account—being so bad a lot that he dare not give himself a decent character—he will employ it to the uttermost for a spotless nephew.'

Bad Man, subs. (American).—A bad man, in the West, is a somewhat mixed character. The term is generally understood to mean a professional fighter or man-killer, but who, despite this drawback, is said by Roosevelt, in Ranch Life in the Far West, to be sometimes, according to his light, perfectly honest. These are the men who do most of the killing in frontier communities; yet it is a noteworthy fact that the men who are killed generally deserve their fate. These men are, of course, used to brawling, and are not only sure shots, but, what is equally important, able to 'draw' their weapon with marvellous quickness. They think nothing whatever of murder, and are the dread and terror of their associates; yet they are very chary of taking the life of a man of good standing, and will often 'weak