batten
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
carpentry
construction
manufacturing
nautical
textiles
transport
weaving
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English *battenen, *batnen, of North Germanic origin, probably from Old Norse batna (“to grow better, improve, recover”), from Proto-Germanic *batnaną (“to become better, improve”) (compare Old Norse bati (“advantage, improvement”), from Proto-Germanic *batô (“improvement, recovery”)), from *bataz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰed- (“good”). Compare battle (“(adjective) improving; fattening, nutritious; fertile, fruitful; (verb) to feed or nourish; to render (land, etc.) fertile or fruitful”) (obsolete).
The adjective is probably derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Dutch baten (“to avail, benefit, profit”)
* Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌰𐍄𐌽𐌰𐌽 (gabatnan, “to benefit, profit”)
* Icelandic batna (“to improve, recover”)
* Old English batian (“to get better, recover”)
Inflected forms:
form: battens
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: battening
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: battenest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: battenedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: battens
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: batteneth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: batten
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: battening
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: battened
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: battens
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: batton
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: To cause (an animal, etc.) to become fat or thrive through plenteous feeding; to fatten.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: VVe drove a field, and both together heard / VVhat time the Gray-fly vvinds her ſultry horn, / Batt'ning our flocks vvith the freſh devvs of night, […]
gloss: To enrich or fertilize (land, soil, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
rare
transitive
examples: [O]thers [i.e., rivers] ariſing and running thorovv this Shire, doe ſo batten the ground, that the Medovves euen in the midſt of VVinter grovv greene; […]
gloss: To become better; to improve in condition; especially of animals, by feeding; to fatten up.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: No, let him batten; when his tongue / Once goes, a cat is not worse strung.
Like enough, Sir, ſhee'll doe forty ſuch things in an houre (an you liſten to her) for her recreation, if the toy take her i'the greaſie kerchiefe: it makes her fat you ſee. Shee battens vvith it.
VVe eate our ovvne, and batten more, / Becauſe vve feed on no mans ſcore: / But pitie thoſe vvhoſe flanks grovv great, / Svvel'd vvith the Lard of others meat.
Our vvomen batten vvell on their good-nature; / All they can rap and rend for the dear creature.
Sure he preſum'd of praiſe, vvho came to ſtock / Th' etherial paſtures vvith ſo fair a flock; / Burniſh'd, and bat'ning on their food, to ſhovv / The diligence of carefull herds belovv.
[S]ome fell ſerpent in his cave expects / The traveller's approach, batten'd vvith herbs / Of baneful juice to fury, forth he looks / Hideous, and lies coil'd all around his den.
gloss: Of land, soil, etc.: to become fertile; also, of plants: to grow lush.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Followed by on: to eat greedily; to glut.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Could you on this faire Mountaine leaue to feed, / And batten on this Moore?
Follovv your Function, go, and batten on colde bits.
As at full length the pamper'd Monarch lay, / Batt'ning in eaſe, and ſlumbring Life avvay / A ſpightful noiſe his dovvny Chains unties, / Haſtes forvvard, and encreaſes as it flies.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie / Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, […]
The strong carnivorous eagle, shall wheel down / To meet thee,—self-called to a daily feast,— / And set his fierce beak in thee, and tear off / The long rags of thy flesh, and batten deep / Upon thy dusky liver!
The brain had its own food on which it battened, and the imagination, made grotesque by terror, twisted and distorted as a living thing by pain, danced like some foul puppet on a stand and grinned through moving masks.
gloss: Followed by on: to prosper or thrive, especially at the expense of others.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: Robber barons who battened on the poor
There, in these Dens of Satan, […] do Sieur Motier's mouchards consort and colleague; battening vampyre-like on a People next-door to starvation.
gloss: To gloat at; to revel in.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
gloss: To gratify a morbid appetite or craving.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: [H]opes he may / VVith charmes, like Æson, haue his youth reſtor'd: / And vvith theſe thoughts ſo battens, as if fate / VVould be as eaſily cheated on, as he, / And all turnes aire!
[T]here are sceptics with a taste for carrion who batten on the hideous facts in history, – persecutions, inquisitions, St. Bartholomew massacres, devilish lives, Nero, Cæsar, Borgia, Marat, Lopez, – men in whom every ray of humanity was extinguished, parricides, matricides, and whatever moral monsters.
gloss: A plank or strip of wood, or several of such strips arranged side by side, used in construction to hold members of a structure together, to provide a fixing point, to strengthen, or to prevent warping.
pos: noun
gloss: A strip of wood holding a number of lamps; especially (theater), one used for illuminating a stage; (by extension, also attributive) a long bar, usually metal, affixed to the ceiling or fly system and used to support curtains, scenery, etc.
pos: noun
tags: specifically
gloss: A long, narrow strip, originally of wood but now also of fibreglass, metal, etc., used for various purposes aboard a ship; especially one attached to a mast or spar for protection, one holding down the edge of a tarpaulin covering a hatch to prevent water from entering the hatch, one inserted in a pocket sewn on a sail to keep it flat, or one from which a hammock is suspended.
pos: noun
tags: specifically
examples: The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened the ship.
She was too sick to get out of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance; […] we were permitted to come in and hoist her ladyship up again to the battens.
In carvel construction, the planks which cover the sides of the vessel lie alongside one another without overlapping and the seams are calked. Where the construction is too light to admit calking, a narrow batten or ribband is run along the seams inside.
gloss: The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.
pos: noun
tags: specifically
Derived words: battened
battener
battening
battner
battenboard
battenless
counter batten
sweat batten
Translations: