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Batten   /bˈætən/   Listen
noun
Batten  n.  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.
(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.
Batten door (Arch.), a door made of boards of the whole length of the door, secured by battens nailed crosswise.


Batten  n.  The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.


verb
Batten  v. t.  (past & past part. battened; pres. part. battening)  
1.
To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten. "Battening our flocks."
2.
To fertilize or enrich, as land.


Batten  v. t.  To furnish or fasten with battens.
To batten down, to fasten down with battens, as the tarpaulin over the hatches of a ship during a storm.


Batten  v. i.  To grow fat; to grow fat in ease and luxury; to glut one's self. "The pampered monarch lay battening in ease." "Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history, persecutions, inquisitions."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Batten" Quotes from Famous Books



... understood, but only glazedly Reflected. Upwards, upwards through the shadows, Through the lush sponginess of deep-sea meadows Where hare-lipped monsters batten, let me ply ...
— The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems • Aldous Huxley
... the blood and marrow and life of the struggling people, you heartless extortioner! Begone, sirra; a foot of land upon the property for which I am agent you shall never occupy. You and your tribe, whether you batten upon the distress of struggling industry in the deceitful Maelstrooms of the metropolis, or in the dirty, dingy shops of a private country village, are each a scorpion curse to the people. Your very ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton
... There are times when the mind is lifted up by a master-emotion, arising one hardly knows how, nor whither leading; a feeling that takes charge of one, as a big wave is said to take charge of a boat when it destroys steerageway; an emotion so powerful that it does but batten on all which might be expected to clash with it. These are the periods when day and night are enveloped in one large state of mind, and life ceases to be a collection of discrete, semi-related moods. These are the dawns of the soul, the ...
— A Poor Man's House • Stephen Sydney Reynolds
... Burns about this excessive care. I would have been well content to batten the hatch down and let them perish under ...
— 'Twixt Land & Sea • Joseph Conrad
... delightfully un-American; the outside of his house may be as rough as the outside of a bird's nest; it is the inside that is for the birds; and the front room of this house, when the daughter presently threw open the batten shutters of its single street door, looked as bright and happy, with its candelabra glittering on the mantel, and its curtains of snowy lace, as ...
— The Grandissimes • George Washington Cable


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