Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Battery
1.
The act of battering or beating.
2.
(Law)
The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another’s person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him.
3.
(Mil.)
(a)
Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense.
(b)
Two or more pieces of artillery in the field.
(c)
A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns.
Barbette battery
. See
– Barbette
. Battery d'enfilade
, or Enfilading battery
one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work.
– Battery en écharpe
, one that plays obliquely.
– Battery gun
, a gun capable of firing a number of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load.
– Battery wagon
, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery.
– In battery
, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing.
– Masked battery
, a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy.
– Out of battery
, or From battery
withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.
4.
(Elec.)
(a)
A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously.
(b)
An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity.
☞ In the
trough battery
, copper and zinc plates, connected in pairs, divide the trough into cells, which are filled with an acid or oxidizing liquid; the effect is exhibited when wires connected with the two end-plates are brought together. In Daniell's battery
, the metals are zinc and copper, the former in dilute sulphuric acid, or a solution of sulphate of zinc, the latter in a saturated solution of sulphate of copper. A modification of this is the common gravity battery
, so called from the automatic action of the two fluids, which are separated by their specific gravities. In Grove's battery
, platinum is the metal used with zinc; two fluids are used, one of them in a porous cell surrounded by the other. In Bunsen's
or the carbon battery
, the carbon of gas coke is substituted for the platinum of Grove's. In Leclanché's battery
, the elements are zinc in a solution of ammonium chloride, and gas carbon surrounded with manganese dioxide in a porous cell. A secondary battery
is a battery which usually has the two plates of the same kind, generally of lead, in dilute sulphuric acid, and which, when traversed by an electric current, becomes charged, and is then capable of giving a current of itself for a time, owing to chemical changes produced by the charging current. A storage battery
is a kind of secondary battery used for accumulating and storing the energy of electrical charges or currents, usually by means of chemical work done by them; an accumulator. 5.
A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts;
as, a
battery
of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc.6.
(Metallurgy)
A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals.
Knight.
7.
The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down.
8.
(Baseball)
The pitcher and catcher together.
Webster 1828 Edition
Battery
BAT'TERY
,Noun.
1.
The act of battering, or beating.2.
The instrument of battering.3.
In the military art, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and others employed about them, from the enemy's shot, with the guns employed. Thus, to erect a battery, is to form the parapet and mount the guns. The term is applied also to a number of guns ranged in order for battering, and to mortars used for a like purpose. Cross batteries are two batteries which play athwart each other, forming an angle upon the object battered.
Battery d'enfilade, is one which scours or sweeps the whole line or length.
Battery en echarpe, is that which plays obliquely.
Battery de revers, is that which plays upon the enemy's back.
Camerade battery, is when several guns play at the same time upon one place.
4.
In law, the unlawful beating of another. The least violence or the touching of another in anger is a battery. 5. In electrical apparatus and experiments,a number of coated jars placed in such a manner, that they may be charged at the same time, and discharged in the same manner. This is called an electrical battery.
6.
Galvanic battery, a pile or series of plates of copper and zink, or of any substances suspectable of galvanic action.Definition 2024
battery
battery
English
Noun
Electrical batteries
A cannon battery
battery (plural batteries)
- A device used to power electric devices, consisting of a set of electrically connected electrochemical or electrostatic cells.
- 2012, John Karsnitz, et al, Engineering Design: An Introduction, page 364:
- [For his experiments with electricity,] Benjamin Franklin utilized Leyden jars and referred to several jars hooked together as a battery (after a "battery" of cannon).
- 2012, Christian Glaize & Sylvie Genies, Lead and Nickel Electrochemical Batteries, page 6:
- [The voltage of a single cell is] too low for most applications [... so] a series of cells will be used to obtain the desired voltage – a "battery" of cells, in the strictest sense of the term.
-
- (law) Act of inflicting unlawful physical violence to a person, legally distinguished from assault which includes the threat of impending violence.
- 2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, section 7.2.2-3:
- A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. [...] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault [...] although this was a battery.
- 2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, section 7.2.2-3:
- A coordinated group of artillery weapons.
- 2005, Barry Leonard, Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War, page 20:
- the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces.
-
- (historical, archaic) An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
- 2015, Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg, page 142-143:
- The construction of advanced batteries mirrored that of those built along the line of circumvallation. [...] Although Mahan demanded that batteries be constructed to exacting dimensions and revetted with gabions, fascines, and sandbags, at Vicksburg the resources at hand determined what materials soldiers used to build what they termed artillery "forts".
- 1780, John Robertson et al, The Elements of Navigation, page 53:
- such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon.
- 1776, Charles Carroll & Brantz Mayer, Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, page 97:
- His grand battery was as badly provided with cannon as his little battery, for not a single gun was mounted on either.
- 1766, John Entick, A New and Accurate History and Survey of London, page 337:
- On this wharf [Tower Bridge wharf] there is a long and beautiful platform, on which are planted 61 pieces of cannon [...] Devil's Battery, where is also a platform, on which are mounted seven pieces of cannon, although on the battery itself there are only five.
-
- An array of similar things.
- Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.
- A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
- (baseball) The catcher and the pitcher together
- (chess) Two or more major pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal
- The state of a firearm when it is possible to be fired.
Derived terms
Terms derived from battery
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Translations
device producing electricity
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crime of striking another
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array of similar things
coordinated group of artillery
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set of cages for hens
See also
- accumulator
- assault
- replacement battery