Word: battery Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled. Pronunciation: /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/, /ˈbæt͡ʃɹi/, /ˈbæt.əɹi/, [ˈbæɾə.ɹi], /ˈbaʈ.(ə)ri/ 1. A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. Labels: countable Example: alkaline battery Example: sodium-ion battery 2. A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Her phone needs a new battery because its present battery no longer holds a charge well. Example: 1749 Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson Upon this We made what we call’d an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm’d with thin leaden Plates, pasted on each Side... A Turky is to be killed for our Dinners by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a Fire kindled by the Electrified Bottle; when the Healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns from the Electrical Battery. 3. The energy stored in such a device. Labels: informal, metonymically, uncountable Example: Her phone did not have enough battery for another phone call. Example: A: How much battery do you have left? B: Only 63%. 4. The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Holonym: assault and battery Example: […] A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. […] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault […] although this was a battery. 5. A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns. Labels: countable Example: Outside the ancient fort, you can still see worn areas in the stone where the batteries were once placed. 6. A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: They sent four batteries southward in an attempt to shore up the defenses around the depot. Example: the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces. 7. An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed. Labels: archaic, countable, historical, uncountable Example: The construction of advanced batteries mirrored that of those built along the line of circumvallation. [...] Although Mahan demanded that batteries be constructed to exacting dimensions and revetted with gabions, fascines, and sandbags, at Vicksburg the resources at hand determined what materials soldiers used to build what they termed artillery "forts". Example: such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon. 8. An array of similar things. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress. 9. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: ‘Do you know how battery chickens live?’ 10. The catcher and the pitcher together Labels: countable, uncountable 11. Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal Labels: countable, uncountable 12. A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: in battery Example: out of battery 14. Apparatus for preparing or serving meals. Labels: archaic, countable, uncountable