English Explanatory Dictionary

battle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A contest, a struggle.
  2. A one-on-one competition in rapping or breakdance.
  3. A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; a combat, an engagement.
  4. A division of an army; a battalion.
  5. The main body of an army, as distinct from the vanguard and rear; the battalia.
  6. Clipping of battle buddy.
verb
  1. To join in battle; to contend in fight
  2. To fight or struggle; to enter into a battle with.
adj
  1. Of grass or pasture: nutritious to cattle or sheep; fattening, nourishing.
  2. Of land (originally pastureland) or soil: fertile, fruitful.
verb
  1. To feed or nourish (someone or something).
  2. To render (land, soil, etc.) fertile or fruitful.
name
  1. A habitational surname from Middle English from places in England that have been sites of a battle.
  2. A place name:
  3. A town and civil parish with a town council in Rother district, East Sussex, England; supposed site of the Battle of Hastings (OS grid ref TQ7416).
  4. A hamlet in Yscir community, Powys, Wales (OS grid ref SO0131).
  5. A river in Saskatchewan, Canada: see Battle River.
  6. A ghost town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States.

Pronunciation

/ˈbætl̩/ [ˈbatʰɫ̩] băt'l [ˈbæɾɫ̩] [bætɫ̩] en-us-battle.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-battle.wav /ˈbætəɫ/

Word forms

battle battles batail battel battell battling battled more battle most battle battil battill baittle bettle batwell

Etymology

From Middle English batel, batell, batelle, batayle, bataylle, borrowed from Old French bataille, from Late Latin battālia, variant of battuālia (“fighting and fencing exercises”) from Latin battuō (“to strike, hit, beat, fight”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from a Gaulish or Proto-Germanic root from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to stab, dig”), related to Old English beado (“battle”); or possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit, strike, beat”). Doublet of battalia and battel. Displaced native Old English ġefeoht, beado, camp, and wīg (“battle”), among others.

Synonyms

batten improving

Related words

battlement embattle batful batten

Derived words

active time battle battailous battle-array battle-ax battle-axe battle axe battleball battle bus battlebus battlecraft Battle Creek battle cruiser battle-cruiser battle cry battle-damaged battledress battle fatigue battle fatigues battlefield battle-field battle fleet battlefront battleful Battle Ground battleground battle-ground battlegroup battle-hardened battle honours battlehorse battle jacket battle line battle-line battleline battlemage battle map battlemaster Battle Mountain Battle of Gaugamela Battle of Okinawa battle of the bands battle of the brains battle of the bulge battle of the currents battle of the forms battle of the sexes battle out battle pass battle piece battleplan battleplane battler battle rap battle rapper battle rhythm battle rifle Battle River battle rope battle-royal battle royal

Translations

Armenian: պայքար Bulgarian: борба́ Catalan: batalla Czech: boj Czech: zápas Danish: kamp Dutch: gevecht Dutch: strijd Esperanto: lukto Finnish: taistelu French: lutte North Frisian: kåmp German: Kampf Greek: μάχη Greek: αγώνας Hebrew: מַאֲבָק Icelandic: barátta Irish: coimhlint Italian: lotta Japanese: 戦い Polish: walka Polish: bitwa Portuguese: luta Russian: борьба́ Serbo-Croatian: бо̀рба Serbo-Croatian: bòrba Walloon: lûte Walloon: toursiyaedje Catalan: batallar Dutch: bestrijden Dutch: bevechten Esperanto: batali Finnish: taistella Georgian: ებრძოლება German: bekämpfen German: bekriegen Gothic: 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 Greek: μάχομαι Māori: kakari Sanskrit: युध्यते Spanish: batallar
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on B Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary