battelert

[Also bat teller, battler, batler; battel, battel, battle, + -er1.] -er1.] 1. A student at Oxford indebted in the college-books for provisions and drink at the buttery.-2. One of a rank or order of students at Oxford below commoners; a poor student. Pierce Penny le , exceeding poor scholar, that hath made clean shoes in both universities, and been a pitiful battler all thy lifetime. Middle ton, The Black Book. battement (bat'ment; F. pron. bat-e-mon'), n. [F., B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. 2. To feed gluttonously; figuratively, gratify a morbid appetite or craving; gloat: absolutely, or with on or upon. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor? Shak., Hamlet, iii. 4. Her savage birds O'er human carca es do scream and batten . J. Baillie. The moths, that were then battening upon its obsolete ledgers and day-books, have rested from their depredations. Lamb , South-Sea House. Melancholy sceptics... who batten on the hideous facts in history. Emerson , Society and Solitude, x. 220. 3. Figuratively, to thrive; prosper; live in ease and luxury, especially at the expense or to the detriment of others: with on , formerly also with : as, to batten on ill-gotten gains. And with these thoughts so battens , as if fate Would be as easily cheated on as he. B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1. II. trans. 1. To improve by feeding; fatten; make fat or cause to thrive with plenteous feeding. Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. Milton , Lycidas, 1. 29. 2t. To fertilize or enrich (the soil). batten2 (bat'n), n. [A more English spelling of batt on, baton, prevailing in the non-literary uses of the word: see baton, batoon, bast on.] infantry, cavalry, grenadiers, voltigeurs, etc. In the United States two or more detached companies of in- fantry, squadrons of cavalry, or batteries of artillery serv- ing together are called a battalion, simply for convenience. 3. Technically, a body of infantry composed of two or more companies forming part of a regiment, or sometimes constituting a whole regiment. In European armies an infantry regiment is usually divided into three battalions, sometimes with a 1. A strip or scantling of wood. Specifically (a) A bar nailed acro parallel boards (as those forming a door, shutter, etc.) to keep them together. (b) One of the strips used as supports for the laths of a plastered wall, or for nailing over the cracks between boards. (c) One of the narrow strips nailed to a mast or spar, at a place ex- posed to friction, to prevent chafing. (d) A narrow strip used to nail down the edges of a tarpaulin over a hatch- [He] stepped cautiously up to one of the batten doors with an auger, and succeeded, without arousing any one, in boring a hole. G. W. Cable , The Grandi imes, p. 407. battening (bat'ning), n. [Verbal n. of bat ten2.] 1. The operation of fixing to a wall battens, to which are to be nailed laths to receive plastering.-2. The battens fixed to a wall for this purpose. batter1 (bat'er), v. [ -er , bat- (repr. in ME. by baten (only in trans.) in the sense of bate or flutter as a hawk (see batel ); in later ME. and mod. E. regarded as freq. of bat (late ME. batten ), from the noun bat1 , which may be of the same ult. origin), batre , F. battre = Pr . batre = Sp. batir = Pg. bater = It. battere, batere , battere for L. batuere , bat beat, strike: see batel , battlel , etc. Not connected with E. beat1 .] I. trans. 1. To beat upon or against; strike with repeated blows; bludgeon, a battering-ram, cannon-shot, etc.: as, to batter a door for admittance; to batter the walls of a city (with or without effect). violently, as with the fist, a hammer or The thunderer, whose bolt, you know, Sky-planted, batters all rebellious coasts. Shak., Cymbeline, v. 4. [The] whole artillery of the western blast, Battering the Temple's front, its long-drawn nave, Smiting as if each moment were their last. Words worth, Cave of Staff a. 2. To bruise, break, or shatter by beating; injure the substance of by blows; pound out of form or condition: as, to batter a person's countenance; a battered wall or tower; to bat ter type (that is, bruise the face of it). Now were the walls beaten with the rams, and many parts thereof shaken and battered . Holland , tr. of Livy, p. 397. 3. In forging , to spread outwardly, as the ends of a metal bar or rod, by hammering; upset. E. H. Knight. II. in trans. To act by beating or striking; use repeated blows; practise pounding: as, to batter away at a door; to batter upon a wall; battering cannon. With all her battering engines bent to rase Some capital city. Milton , P. L., ii. 923. Besiegers break ground at a safe distance, and advance gradually till near enough to batter . Abp. Whately, Elem. of Rhetoric, I. iii. § 5. To batter at, to make attacks upon; try to overthrow or destroy. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? Shak ., Macbeth, iv. 3. To batter in breach. (a) To direct a heavy cannonade from a breaching battery against a selected part of the wall or rampart inclosing an enemy's fortification, in order to level or destroy it, and make an effective breach or opening through which an a ault in force may be made. (b) Specifically, to attempt to breach an enemy's works by means of a battery mounted in the third parallel. To batter in breach, a sufficient number of guns should be employed to maintain a practically continuous fire, so as to prevent the enemy from repairing the damage, and to obtain the cumulative effect due to heavy firing against a single point. Breaching is sometimes accomplished by firing simultaneous or alternate volleys from two or more batteries.