as in teasing
to subject (someone) to constant scoldings and sharp reminders
He's always badgering me about the dishes.
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Recent Examples of badgering
Not only in badgering a quarterback making his first start or in holding Tennessee without a touchdown.
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Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 4 Jan. 2026
Jason Bateman shines in the scene with the Diamond District connect, fast-talking and badgering this guy within an inch of his life until Mancuso and Babbitt show up to take him out.
—Andy Andersen, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
Impatient investors have been badgering the company for several years to cash in some of its more valuable assets.
—Greg Petro, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Poor people know the intimate, badgering pangs of hunger, but in Ireland, the memory of the 1845-1848 Famine—the Great Hunger, when one million died from starvation and disease, and another million emigrated—still aches.
—Philip Metres
august 27, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2025
Trump has been badgering Powell and other Fed officials to cut rates for months, but Powell has said the independent agency isn’t influenced by politics and will do what’s best for the economy.
—Paul Davidson, USA Today, 23 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for badgering
Verb
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Viewers see painful flashbacks throughout the show of classmates teasing Kelly about being overweight and daring her to drink urine.—
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On Wednesday, Duff ramped up the anticipation for her new album, teasing a new song about dive bar hookups, inconvenient roommates, and a once-red-hot romance fizzling into the tombs of relationship graveyards.—
Verb
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The strengths that those same opponents will spend long hours trying to account for — Nix’s pestering speed, a relentless pass-rush that produced a franchise-record 68 sacks, including four of Lance — aren’t changing either.—
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No kid brother tagging along, pestering him with questions, pushing up on his social circle.—
Cite this Entry
“Badgering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/badgering. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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