battery-park









battery-park


noun

  1. The, a park at the S end of Manhattan, in New York City.

noun plural -teries

    1. two or more primary cells connected together, usually in series, to provide a source of electric current
    2. short for dry battery
  1. another name for accumulator (def. 1)
  2. a number of similar things occurring togethera battery of questions
  3. criminal law unlawful beating or wounding of a person or mere touching in a hostile or offensive mannerSee also assault and battery
  4. a fortified structure on which artillery is mounted
  5. a group of guns, missile launchers, searchlights, or torpedo tubes of similar type or size operated as a single entity
  6. a small tactical unit of artillery usually consisting of two or more troops, each of two, three or four guns
  7. mainly British
    1. a large group of cages for intensive rearing of poultry
    2. (as modifier)battery hens
  8. psychol a series of tests
  9. chess two pieces of the same colour placed so that one can unmask an attack by the other by moving
  10. the percussion section in an orchestra
  11. baseball the pitcher and the catcher considered together
n.

1530s, “action of battering,” from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (12c.) “beating, thrashing, assault,” from batre “beat,” from Latin battuere “beat” (see batter (v.)).

Meaning shifted in Middle French from “bombardment” (“heavy blows” upon city walls or fortresses) to “unit of artillery” (a sense recorded in English from 1550s). Extension to “electrical cell” (1748, first used by Ben Franklin) is perhaps from the artillery sense via notion of “discharges” of electricity. In Middle English, bateri meant only “forged metal ware.” In obsolete baseball jargon battery was the word for “pitcher and catcher” considered as a unit (1867, originally only the pitcher).

n.

  1. The act of beating or pounding.
  2. An array of similar things intended for use together, such as achievement tests.

  1. A device containing an electric cell or a series of electric cells storing energy that can be converted into electrical power (usually in the form of direct current). Common household batteries, such as those used in a flashlight, are usually made of dry cells (the chemicals producing the current are made into a paste). In other batteries, such as car batteries, these chemicals are in liquid form.

A device that produces an electric current (see also current) by harnessing the chemical reactions that take place within its cells.

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