BADGER. A term of uncertain derivation (possibly derived from bagger, in allusion to the hawker's bag) for a dealer in f ood, such as corn or victuals (more expressly fish, butter or cheese), which he has purchased in one place and brought for sale to an other 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, f ore stalling 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 63, after declaring that many people took up the trade of badger ing "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 An act of 1844 abolished the offence of badgering, and repealed the statutes passed in relation to it.