Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A log less than 11 inches in diameter at the small end.
- To become better; improve in condition (especially by feeding); grow fat; thrive.
- To feed gluttonously; figuratively, gratify a morbid appetite or craving; gloat: absolutely, or with on or upon.
- 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, tobatten on ill-gotten gains. - To improve by feeding; fatten; make fat or cause to thrive with plenteous feeding.
- To fertilize or enrich (the soil).
- To form or fasten with battens.
- noun A Strip or scantling of wood.
- noun In com., squared timber of 6 or more feet in length, 7 inches in width, and 2½ inches in thickness, used in carpentry and housebuilding for various purposes. Pieces less than 6 feet long are known as batten-ends.
- noun In weaving, the beam for striking the weft home; a lathe.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To grow fat; to grow fat in ease and luxury; to glut one's self.
- transitive verb To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten.
- transitive verb To fertilize or enrich, as land.
- transitive verb To furnish or fasten with battens.
- transitive verb to fasten down with battens, as the tarpaulin over the hatches of a ship during a storm.
- noun (Com. & Arch.) Sawed timbers about 7 by 2 1/2 inches and not less than 6 feet long.
- noun (Naut.) A strip of wood used in fastening the edges of a tarpaulin to the deck, also around masts to prevent chafing.
- noun A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part, to cover a crack, etc.
- noun (Arch.) a door made of boards of the whole length of the door, secured by battens nailed crosswise.
- noun The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point.
- noun nautical A long strip of
wood ,metal ,fibreglass etc used for various purposes aboard ship, especially one inserted in a pocket sewn on the sail in order to keep the sail flat. - noun In stagecraft, a long pipe, usually metal, affixed to the ceiling or fly system in a theater.
- noun The movable bar of a
loom , which strikes home or closes the threads of awoof . - verb To
furnish with battens. - verb nautical To
fasten orsecure ahatch etc using battens. - verb intransitive To become
better ;improve in condition, especially by feeding. - verb intransitive To
feed on ; torevel in . - verb intransitive To
thrive by feeding; growfat ;feed oneselfgluttonously . - verb intransitive To thrive,
prosper , or live inluxury , especially at the expense of others;fare sumptuously . - verb intransitive To
gratify amorbid appetite or craving;gloat . - verb transitive To
improve by feeding;fatten ; make fat or cause tothrive due to plenteous feeding.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb furnish with battens
- noun a strip fixed to something to hold it firm
- noun stuffing made of rolls or sheets of cotton wool or synthetic fiber
- verb secure with battens
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"And when you don't get one, you kind of batten down the hatches."
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So we want him to kind of batten down the hatches, so to speak here, because I think the back side of the storm is going to be coming on through, and the winds should be picking up very dramatically, maybe even within the next half an hour or so.
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There was a "batten" on the barn that was loose at the upper end.
Remarks Bill Nye 1873
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So, instead, I rigged up an extender that connects a standard "batten" bulb socket to the oyster-light socket.
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There is even a greater irony in our virtual exchange as both of us stood for countless hours in hurricanes as wind and rain pummeled our slickers telling people like us to batten down the hatches.
Lauren Ashburn: Mommy's Got the Hurricane Blues Lauren Ashburn 2011
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There is even a greater irony in our virtual exchange as both of us stood for countless hours in hurricanes as wind and rain pummeled our slickers telling people like us to batten down the hatches.
Lauren Ashburn: Mommy's Got the Hurricane Blues Lauren Ashburn 2011
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So call it what you will, the labels don't matter, but batten down yer hatches if you have a lick o 'sense.
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009
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There is even a greater irony in our virtual exchange as both of us stood for countless hours in hurricanes as wind and rain pummeled our slickers telling people like us to batten down the hatches.
Lauren Ashburn: Mommy's Got the Hurricane Blues Lauren Ashburn 2011
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So call it what you will, the labels don't matter, but batten down yer hatches if you have a lick o 'sense.
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009
-
There is even a greater irony in our virtual exchange as both of us stood for countless hours in hurricanes as wind and rain pummeled our slickers telling people like us to batten down the hatches.
Lauren Ashburn: Mommy's Got the Hurricane Blues Lauren Ashburn 2011
fbharjo commented on the word batten
batten its hard to find a better word
January 16, 2007
knitandpurl commented on the word batten
I knew batten in the sense of "batten down the hatches" but not in the sense of, as m-w.com puts it, "to grow prosperous especially at the expense of another."
August 10, 2007
seanahan commented on the word batten
That's bizarre. I've never heard it in the sense before. I think it is archaic or obsolete or just absurd.
August 10, 2007
reesetee commented on the word batten
I've never heard it before either, knitandpurl. Interesting!
August 10, 2007
knitandpurl commented on the word batten
I had no recollection of having looked this word up before, but apparently I did! Yet again I encountered it in the sense of "fatten" and was surprised. In The Captive by Proust: "Then, like a famished convalescent already battening upon all the dishes that are still forbidden him ..."
December 25, 2009
Gammerstang commented on the word batten
(verb) - (1) To fatten, or grow fat. In Sternberg's Folk Lore and Glossary of Northamptonshire 1851, the local phrase is quoted, "Them pigs batten in the sun."
--Charles Mackay's Lost Beauties of the English Language, 1874
(2) Fattening and battening, a toast of a child's fattening and thriving given at its baptism in private, when the bread, cheese and whisky are partaken of.
--Alexander Warrack's Scots Dialect Dictionary, 1911
January 16, 2018