n. [ Obs. form. of Battle. ] (Old Eng. Law) A single combat; as, trial by battel. See Wager of battel, under Wager. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Of uncertain etymology. ] Provisions ordered from the buttery; also, the charges for them; -- only in the pl., except when used adjectively. [ Univ. of Oxford, Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be supplied with provisions from the buttery. [ Univ. of Oxford, Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. Batful, Batten, v. i. ] To make fertile. [ Obs. ] “To battel barren land.” Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Fertile; fruitful; productive. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A battel soil for grain, for pasture good. Fairfax. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Battened p. pr. & vb. n. Battening. ] [ See Batful. ] 1. To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten. “Battening our flocks.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To fertilize or enrich, as land. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To grow fat; to grow fat in ease and luxury; to glut one's self. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

The pampered monarch lay battening in ease. Garth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history, -- persecutions, inquisitions. Emerson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bâton stick, staff. See Baton. ] A strip of sawed stuff, or a scantling; as, (a) pl. (Com. & Arch.) Sawed timbers about 7 by 2 1/2 inches and not less than 6 feet long. Brande & C. (b) (Naut.) A strip of wood used in fastening the edges of a tarpaulin to the deck, also around masts to prevent chafing. (c) A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part, to cover a crack, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Batten door (Arch.), a door made of boards of the whole length of the door, secured by battens nailed crosswise. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To furnish or fasten with battens. [ 1913 Webster ]

To batten down, to fasten down with battens, as the tarpaulin over the hatches of a ship during a storm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. battant. See Batter, v. t. ] The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Arch.) Furring done with small pieces nailed directly upon the wall. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Battered p. pr. & vb. n. Battering. ] [ OE. bateren, OF. batre, F. battre, fr. LL. battere, for L. batuere to strike, beat; of unknown origin. Cf. Abate, Bate to abate. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish; as, to batter a wall or rampart. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage. “Each battered jade.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Metallurgy) To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. batere, batire; cf. OF. bateure, bature, a beating. See Batter, v. t. ] 1. A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc., beaten together and used in cookery. King. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Paste of clay or loam. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Printing) A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope of a wall is regulated in building. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. (Arch.) To slope gently backward. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The one who wields the bat in baseball; the one whose turn it is at bat; formerly called the batsman. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

adj. 1. In deplorable condition; as, the battered old Ford station wagon.
Syn. -- beat-up, beaten-up, bedraggled, broken-down, dilapidated, ramshackle, tumble-down, unsound. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Hit or pounded repeatedly and violently with heavy blows; as, a battered old car; antomyn of unbattered. [ Narrower terms: buffeted; storm-tossed, tempest-tossed, tempest-tost, tempest-swept ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. Damaged especially by hard usage. his battered old hat [ WordNet 1.5 ]

4. beaten repeatedly; -- of people; as, a battered child; the battered woman syndrome; a battered wife.
Syn. -- beaten. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who, or that which, batters. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act or process of subjecting to strong repeated blows.
Syn. -- banging. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It was a large beam, with a head of iron, which was sometimes made to resemble the head of a ram. It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and so balanced as to swing backward and forward, and was impelled by men against the wall. Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A blacksmith's hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Mil.) A train of artillery for siege operations. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Batteries [ F. batterie, fr. battre. See Batter, v. t. ] 1. The act of battering or beating. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mil.) (a) Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense. (b) Two or more pieces of artillery in the field. (c) A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns. [ 1913 Webster ]

Barbette battery. See Barbette. --
Battery d'enfilade, or
Enfilading battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work. --
Battery en écharpe, one that plays obliquely. --
Battery gun, a gun capable of firing a number of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load. --
Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery. --
In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing. --
Masked battery, a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy. --
Out of battery, or
From battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Elec.) (a) A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously. (b) An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the trough battery, copper and zinc plates, connected in pairs, divide the trough into cells, which are filled with an acid or oxidizing liquid; the effect is exhibited when wires connected with the two end-plates are brought together. In Daniell's battery, the metals are zinc and copper, the former in dilute sulphuric acid, or a solution of sulphate of zinc, the latter in a saturated solution of sulphate of copper. A modification of this is the common gravity battery, so called from the automatic action of the two fluids, which are separated by their specific gravities. In Grove's battery, platinum is the metal used with zinc; two fluids are used, one of them in a porous cell surrounded by the other. In Bunsen's or the carbon battery, the carbon of gas coke is substituted for the platinum of Grove's. In Leclanché's battery, the elements are zinc in a solution of ammonium chloride, and gas carbon surrounded with manganese dioxide in a porous cell. A secondary battery is a battery which usually has the two plates of the same kind, generally of lead, in dilute sulphuric acid, and which, when traversed by an electric current, becomes charged, and is then capable of giving a current of itself for a time, owing to chemical changes produced by the charging current. A storage battery is a kind of secondary battery used for accumulating and storing the energy of electrical charges or currents, usually by means of chemical work done by them; an accumulator. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts; as, a battery of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Metallurgy) A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Baseball) The pitcher and catcher together. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ See 2d Battel, n. ] A student at Oxford who is supplied with provisions from the buttery; formerly, one who paid for nothing but what he called for, answering nearly to a sizar at Cambridge. Wright. [ 1913 Webster ]

See under Battery. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Thermo- + battery. ] A thermoelectric battery; a thermopile. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Elec.) A voltaic battery in which the exciting fluid is water. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mil.) A battery nearly on a level with the water. [ 1913 Webster ]