baton, batoon, battoon, bat une, bast on

[Fr. bâton = a batoon, a staff, a walking-stick, a club, a cudgel, a truncheon, a field-marshal's staff; O. Fr. & Sp. bast on; Ital. bastine = a staff, a support, a prop; Low Lat. basto.] [BASTON.] A. Ordinary Language: 1. Gen.: A staff or club. "Straightways we saw divers of the people with bastons in their hands, as it were, forbidding us to land. Bacon: New At lant is. 2. Spec.: A tranche on, or anything similar. It may be used (a) As a badge or symbol of authority, as a field-marshal's baton. (b) Partly as a symbol of authority, and partly as an offensive weapon, as a policeman's baton. cheios) = pertaining to a frog, from βάτραχος ( batrachos ) = a frog.] According to Brongniart and Cuvier, the last of the four orders of Reptiles. In Prof. Owen's cla ification, the thirteenth and last order of the cla Reptilia, or Reptiles. He places under it the frogs, toads, and newts. (Prof. Owen: Paleontology .) Huxley makes the Batrachia the second of his four orders of Amphibia. It contains the frogs and toads. bạt-rā-chi-an, * bạt-rā-çi-an, adj. & s. [In Fr. batracien.] [BATRACHIA.] A. As adj.: Pertaining to any member of the order Batrachia. ( Lyell.) B. As subst. A member of the order Batrachia. "... these formidable Batrachians."-Lyell.