Badge

Badge, a distinctive device, emblem, mark, honorary decoration, or special cognizance, used originally to identify a knight or distinguish his followers, now worn as a sign of office or licensed employment, as a token of membership in some society, or generally as a mark showing the relation of the wearer to any person, occupation, or order.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

Badge (?), n. [LL. bagea, bagia, sign, prob. of German origin; cf. AS. be�xa0;g, be�xa0;h, bracelet, collar, crown, OS bg- in comp., AS. bgan to bow, bend, G. biegen. See Bow to bend.]

1.

A distinctive mark, token, sign, or cognizance, worn on the person; as, the badge of a society; the badge of a policeman.

Prescott.

2.

Something characteristic; a mark; a token.

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. Shak.

3. Naut.

A carved ornament on the stern of a vessel, containing a window or the representation of one.

© Webster 1913.

Badge (?), v. t.

To mark or distinguish with a badge.

© Webster 1913.