Batten

Pronunciation

• US enPR: băt'-n, IPA: /'bæt.É™n/

From Middle English *battenen, *batnen, of origin, from Old Norse batna ("to grow better, improve, recover"), from Proto-Germanic *batnaną ("to become good, get better"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhAd- ("good"). Cognate with Icelandic batna ("to improve, recover"), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌰𐍄𐌽𐌰𐌽 (gabatnan, "to be noteful, profit, boot"), Dutch baten ("to avail, profit, benefit"), Old English batian ("to get better, recover"). More at better.

Full definition of batten

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become better; improve in condition, especially by feeding.
2. (intransitive) To feed on; to revel in.
• 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. XIV: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.
3. (intransitive) To thrive by feeding; grow fat; feed oneself gluttonously.
• GarthThe pampered monarch lay battening in ease.
• EmersonSkeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history...
4. (intransitive) To thrive, prosper, or live in luxury, especially at the expense of others; fare sumptuously.''Robber barons who battened on the poor
5. (intransitive) To gratify a morbid appetite or craving; gloat.
6. (transitive) To improve by feeding; fatten; make fat or cause to thrive due to plenteous feeding.
• Miltonbattening our flocks
7. (transitive) To fertilize or enrich, as land.

Derived terms

• battner

Related terms

• battle

From Middle English bataunt, batent ("finished board"), from Old French batent ("beating")

Noun

1. A thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point.
2. (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.
3. In stagecraft, a long pipe, usually metal, affixed to the ceiling or fly system in a theater.
4. The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.

Verb

1. To furnish with battens.
2. (nautical) To fasten or secure a hatch etc using battens.

Derived terms

• batten down
• batten down the hatches