batten Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun stuffing made of rolls or sheets of cotton wool or synthetic fiber
    batting.
  2. noun a strip fixed to something to hold it firm
  3. verb furnish with battens
    batten down; secure.
    • batten ships
  4. verb secure with battens
    • batten down a ship's hatches

WordNet

Bat"ten transitive verb
Etymology
See Batful.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Battened (); present participle & verbal noun Battening
Definitions
  1. To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten. "Battening our flocks." Milton.
  2. To fertilize or enrich, as land.
Bat"ten intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To grow fat; to grow fat in ease and luxury; to glut one's self. Dryden.
    The pampered monarch lay battening in ease. Garth.
    Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history, -- persecutions, inquisitions. Emerson.
Bat"ten noun
Etymology
F. bton stick, staff. See Baton.
Definitions
  1. A strip of sawed stuff, or a scantling; as, (a) pl. (Com. & Arch.) Sawed timbers about 7 by 2 1/2 inches and not less than 6 feet long. Brande & C. (b) (Naut.) A strip of wood used in fastening the edges of a tarpaulin to the deck, also around masts to prevent chafing. (c) A long, thin strip used to strengthen a part, to cover a crack, etc.
Bat"ten transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To furnish or fasten with battens.
Bat"ten noun
Etymology
F. battant. See Batter, v. t.
Definitions
  1. The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.

Webster 1913