BADGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does badge mean? 

• BADGE (noun)
  The noun BADGE has 2 senses:

1. an emblem (a small piece of plastic or cloth or metal) that signifies your status (rank or membership or affiliation etc.)

2. any feature that is regarded as a sign of status (a particular power or quality or rank)

  Familiarity information: BADGE used as a noun is rare.

• BADGE (verb)
  The verb BADGE has 1 sense:

1. put a badge on

  Familiarity information: BADGE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BADGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An emblem (a small piece of plastic or cloth or metal) that signifies your status (rank or membership or affiliation etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

they checked everyone's badge before letting them in

Hypernyms ("badge" is a kind of...):

allegory; emblem (a visible symbol representing an abstract idea)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "badge"):

merit badge (a badge award to Boy Scouts in recognition of special projects)

insignia (a badge worn to show official position)

I.D.; ID (a card or badge used to identify the bearer)

black belt (a black sash worn to show expert standards in the martial arts (judo or karate))

blue ribbon; cordon bleu (an honor or award gained for excellence)

button (a round flat badge displaying information and suitable for pinning onto a garment)

chevron; grade insignia; stripe; stripes (V-shaped sleeve badge indicating military rank and service)

stripe (a piece of braid, usually on the sleeve, indicating military rank or length of service)

Derivation:

badge (put a badge on)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any feature that is regarded as a sign of status (a particular power or quality or rank)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

wearing a tie was regarded as a badge of respectability

Hypernyms ("badge" is a kind of...):

characteristic; feature (a prominent attribute or aspect of something)

• BADGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they badge    ... he / she / it badges   
Past simple: badged   
Past participle: badged   
-ing form: badging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put a badge on

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The workers here must be badged

Hypernyms (to "badge" is one way to...):

label; mark; tag (attach a tag or label to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

badge (an emblem (a small piece of plastic or cloth or metal) that signifies your status (rank or membership or affiliation etc.))

 Context examples 

Show that badge conspicuous, or I'll report you!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman,” cried a seaman-mariner.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was caused by the appearance in the ring of Crab Wilson, followed by Dutch Sam and Mendoza carrying the basin, sponge, brandy-bladder, and other badges of their office.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"You rogue! You traitor! Jo, how could you?" cried the three girls, as Snodgrass led her friend triumphantly forth, and producing both a chair and a badge, installed him in a jiffy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an individual and becomes the badge of a society.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet at that moment Helen Burns wore on her arm the untidy badge; scarcely an hour ago I had heard her condemned by Miss Scatcherd to a dinner of bread and water on the morrow because she had blotted an exercise in copying it out.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, with this badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling in front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train of wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictures which I will carry back with me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace; for what can be more unbecoming, or more worthless, than the uniform of a lieutenant, who has been a lieutenant a year or two, and sees others made commanders before him?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party and faction.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A white mantle fluttered behind him, upon the left side of which was marked the broad black cross picked out with silver which was the well-known badge of the Teutonic Order.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)