Batten

[From Fr. baton, a stick or club.] (Carpentry.) A scantling of stuff, from 2 to 7 inches broad, and from 5% to 21⁄2 ins. thick. Battens are employed in the boarding of floors, and also upon walls, in order to secure the laths on which the plaster is laid. (Mar.) Battens are thin pieces of oak or fir nailed to the mastheads and to the midship part of the yards. Battens of the hatches are a sort of long narrow laths, scantlings of wooden stuff, or straightened hoops of casks. They serve, by the help of nailing, to confine the edges of the tarpauling close down to the sides of the hatchways, to prevent the water from penetrating the lower compartments of a ship during a storm. (Mech.) The swing utensil of a loom, by which the weft or woof is struck home, and in which the shuttle runs. Bat'tening. n. ( Arch.) The act of fixing battens to walls, in order to secure the laths over which the plaster is laid; or, the battens in the state of being fixed for that purpose. Bat'tenkill River, rises in Vermont, and, running W., falls into the Hudson, in Washington co., in E. New York. Bat'tenville, in New York , a post-village of Washington co., 38 m. N. by E. of Albany. Bat'ter, n. ( Sports .) Same as BATSMAN, q. v. Bat'ter, v. a. [Fr. battre , from Lat. battuere , to beat or strike down.] To beat down; to beat or strike against; to beat with succe ive blows; to beat with violence; to demolish; -specifically, to pound or shatter with artillery; as, to batter a wall. "Britannia there, the fort in vain Had batter'd been with golden rain."-Waller. -To wear or impair with beating, or by use or hard usage; to attack with engines of war. "Crowds to the castle mounted up the street, Batt'ring the pavement with their coursers' feet."-Dryden. -v. i. ( Arch .) To slope gently backward, as a wall from a line perpendicular to the base. Bat'ter, n. [Fr. battre , to beat.] ( Chokery .) A mixture of several ingredients beaten together with some liquid; as, a batter -pudding. "One would have all things little, hence has tried Turkey poults fresh from th' egg in batter fried."-King. (Arch.) An inclination or sloping backward of the face of a wall. ( Mil .) A cannonade against a fortre by heavy ord nance.