battle array

The array or order of battle. "Two parties of fine women, placed in the opposite side boxes, seemed drawn up in battle-array one against the other."- Add is on . battle-axe ( Eng.), *battar-ax (Old Scotch ), s. 1. Lit .: A weapon like an axe, formerly used in battle. "But littil effect of speir or battar -ax." Dunbar: Bannatyne Poems , p. 48, st. 8. "Four men-at-arms came at their backs, With halbert, bill, and battle -aze." Scott: Marmion, i. 8. In the first example Jamie son considers that battar - az may be an error of an early transcriber for battal -ax ; if not, then it is directly from Fr. battre to beat. 2. Fig .: Military power. The battle - ax in Jer. li. 20 is the military power by the instrumentality of which God should execute his judgment on Babylon.