Library / English Dictionary

BATTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, eggs, and milk, used in cooking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("batter" is a kind of...):

concoction; intermixture; mixture (any foodstuff made by combining different ingredients)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "batter"):

pate a choux; pouf paste; puff batter (batter for making light hollow cases to hold various fillings)

pancake batter (batter for making pancakes)

fritter batter (batter for making fritters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(baseball) a ballplayer who is batting

Synonyms:

batsman; batter; hitter; slugger

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("batter" is a kind of...):

ballplayer; baseball player (an athlete who plays baseball)

Domain category:

ball; baseball; baseball game (a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "batter"):

bunter (a batter who bunts)

designated hitter (a ballplayer who is designated to bat in place of the pitcher)

pinch hitter ((baseball) a substitute for the regular batter)

switch-hitter (a baseball player who can bat either right or left handed)

whiffer (a batter who strikes out by swinging at and missing the third strike)

Derivation:

bat (strike with, or as if with a baseball bat)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a dent or impression in

Example:

dinge a soft hat

Synonyms:

batter; dinge

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "batter" is one way to...):

change form; change shape; deform (assume a different shape or form)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strike violently and repeatedly

Example:

She clobbered the man who tried to attack her

Synonyms:

baste; batter; clobber

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "batter" is one way to...):

beat; beat up; work over (give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to batter the prisoners

Sense 3

Meaning:

Strike against forcefully

Example:

Winds buffeted the tent

Synonyms:

batter; buffet; knock about

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "batter" is one way to...):

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Any of various baked foods made of dough or batter.

(Pastry, NCI Thesaurus)

Mr. Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer; broken and battered as it was, he recognised it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

That the largest balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground, sink down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea, and when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste before them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He divided them into several portions, wrapping them in oil paper, disposing of one bunch in his empty tobacco pouch, of another bunch in the inside band of his battered hat, of a third bunch under his shirt on the chest.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

His romance and adventure were battering at the conventions.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They traveled that day and part of the next until they came to the rocky plain where the Tin Woodman lay, all battered and bent.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

What can you gather from this old battered felt?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and rooks whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence would have done; the battered gateways, one stuck full with statues, long thrown down, and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses, the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden; everywhere—on everything—I felt the same serener air, the same calm, thoughtful, softening spirit.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Thornton saw him coming, and, as Buck struck him like a battering ram, with the whole force of the current behind him, he reached up and closed with both arms around the shaggy neck.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)