SG Heritage Dictionary

Batter [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A mixture of several ingredients, as flour, eggs, salt, etc., beaten together with some liquor, used in cookery.

Batter [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

To swell, bulge or stand out, as a timber or side of a wall from its foundation.

Batter [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To beat with successive blows; to beat with violence, so as to bruise, shake, or demolish; , as, to batter a wall.

2. To wear or impair with beating; as a battered pavement; a battered jade.

3. To attack with a battering ram.

4. To attack with heavy artillery, for the purpose of making a breach in a wall or rampart.

Batter [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope.

2. One who wields a bat; a batsman.

Batter [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To slope gently backward.

Batter [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

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.

2. To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage.

3. To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.

4. A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc., beaten together and used in cookery.

5. Paste of clay or loam.

6. A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form.

Battered [Participle passive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Beaten; bruised, broken, impaired by beating or wearing.

Battered [Imperfect tense and past participle] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Batter

Batterer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

One who batters or beats.

Batterer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One who, or that which, batters.

Batteries [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Battery

Battering [Participle present tense] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Beating; dashing against; bruising or demolishing by beating.

Battering [Present participle and verbal noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Batter

Battering ram Encyclopedia Britannica

BATTERING RAM(Aries), a military engine used before the invention of gunpowder, for beating down the walls of besieged fortresses. It consisted of a long heavy beam of timber, armed at the extremity with iron fashioned something like the head of a ram. In its simplest form the beam was carried in the hands of the soliders, who assailed the walls with it by main force. The improved ram was composed of a longer beam, in some cases extending to 120 feet, shod with iron at one end, and suspended, either by the middle or from two points, from another beam laid across two posts. This is the kind described by Josephus as having been used at the siege of Jerusalem (B. J., iii. 7, 19). It was covered over with a roof, shell, or screen of boards (called the testudo) to protect the men employed in working it from the stones, darts, and other missiles discharged by the besieged from the walls. It was also provided with wheels, which greatly facilitated its operations. A hundred soldiers at a time, and sometimes even a greater number, were employed to work it, and the parties were relieved in constant succession. Josephus says that no wall could resist the continued application of the ram.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 443
[212 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Battering train Webster's Dictionary 1913

A train of artillery for siege operations.

Battering-ram [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

In antiquity, a military engine used to beat down the walls of besieged places. It was a large beam, with a head of iron somewhat resembling the head of a ram, whence its name. It was suspended by ropes in the middle to a beam which was supported by posts, and balanced so as to swing backwards and forwards, and was impelled by men against the wall. It was sometimes mounted on wheels.

Battering-ram [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places.

2. A blacksmith's hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally.

Battery [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. The act of battering, or beating.

2. The instrument of battering.

3. In the military art, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and others employed about them, from the enemy's shot, with the guns employed. Thus, to erect a battery is to form the parapet and mount the guns. The term is applied also to a number of guns ranged in order for battering, and to mortars used for a like purpose.

4. Cross batteries are two batteries which play athwart each other, forming an angle upon the object battered.

5. Battery d'enfilade, is one which scours or sweeps the whole line or length.

6. Battery en echarpe, is that which plays obliquely.

7. Battery de revers, is that which plays upon the enemy's back.

8. Camerade battery is when several guns play at the same time upon one place.

9. In law, the unlawful beating of another. The least violence or the touching of another in anger is a battery

10. In electrical apparatus and experiments, a number of coated jars placed in such a manner, that they may be charged at the same time, and discharged in the same manner. This is called an electrical battery

11. Galvanic battery a pile or series of plates of copper and zink, or of any substances suspectable of galvanic action.

Battery [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The act of battering or beating.

2. 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.

3. Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense.

4. Two or more pieces of artillery in the field.

5. 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.

6. A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously.

7. An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity.

8. 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.

9. A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals.

10. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down.

11. The pitcher and catcher together.

Battery Encyclopedia Britannica

BATTERY is the tactical unit of artillery. It is the term applied to the largest number of fully equipped mobile guns which can be personally superintended by one man. Batteries may be divided into the four classes of horse, field, mountain, and position artillery batteries. In England, France, and Germany batteries consist of six guns; in Austria and Russia of eight guns each. The guns of horse field artillery are drawn by from four to eight horses, the usual number being six. Each battery has a certain number of men told off for the service of the gun called gunners, and others to mauage the draught called drivers. In the horse artillery the gunners are mounted on horses, in field batteries they are carried on the limbers and waggons, in mountain and position batteries both gunners and drivers usually walk. Both horse and field batteries are recognized tactical units of an army, and are maintained in an efficient state in time of peace. Position batteries are organized generally in time of war, are possessed of the heaviest guns consistent with mobility, and are useful in certain special cases, such as the attack or defence of a fortified position, the bombardment of a town, &c. Mountain batteries consist usually of light guns mounted on the backs of mules, and are adapted solely for warfare in mountainous countries. See Artillery. The term battery is also applied to the companies of dismounted artillerymen necessary to fight fortress and siege guns; to separate groups of guns in permanent works; and to the earthworks constructed for the protection of guns in siege operations.

BATTERY, as a law term, is the unlawful beating of another. See Assault, vol. ii. p. 724.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 443
[268 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]