| 释义 |
▪ I. batten, n.1|ˈbæt(ə)n|
Also 7 battin, -oun, -une, 8 -on.
[A variant of baton n., which in technical use preserved the earlier pronunciation, while batoon came in for the more general sense.]
1. a. Carpentry and Build. A piece of squared timber, not more than 7 inches broad and 2½ inches thick, used for flooring, and as a support for laths, etc.; a scantling. (The length may be anything over 6 feet; shorter pieces are known as batten-ends.)
1658Jrnl. in I. Mather Remark. Provid. (1856) 52 The battens next the chimney..were broken. 1743Lond. & Countr. Brew. iii. 179 Three Sides in four of its..second Floor should be built with wooden Battons about three Inches broad, and two thick. 1835Penny Cycl. s.v., Battens are never, and deals are always, above seven inches wide.
b. spec. A strip of wood carrying gas or electric lamps; esp. Theatr., one carrying a series of lamps for lighting a stage; also, such a bar used for supporting scenery, curtains, etc. Also attrib., as batten (lamp-)holder, a lamp-holder fitted with a support which enables it to be screwed on to a flat surface.
1881[see ground-row s.v. ground n. 18 a]. 1899Army & Navy Auxiliary C.S.L. Catal. 384 Batten lampholders. For use on low ceilings, such as lavatories, &c. 1902Daily Chron. 19 July 6/1 That electric light ‘battens’ should be substituted for gas. 1920F. Hamilton Days bef. Yest. vi. 160 Thin screens of coloured silk over the gas-battens in the flies. 1921G. B. Shaw in Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Mar. 178/2 Take your ambers out of your number one batten. 1926J. A. Fleming Electr. Educator I. 138/1 The Batten Holder..is just a simpler..form of backplate holder. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage i. 16 The sky-cloth..leaps to dazzling life as the ‘floods’ and ‘battens’ throw their massed beams upon its surface. 1967Times Rev. Industry Feb. 41/3 In smaller factories management will often ‘put in batten fittings without reflectors’.
2. spec. A bar or strip (orig. as in sense 1) nailed or glued across a door or anything composed of parallel boards, to hold these together, give strength, or prevent warping; a ledge, a clamp.
1663Gerbier Counsel 94 Shutters..framed within with Battens. 1667Primatt City & C. Builder 64 A good firm door of board..with handsome ledges or battouns for ornament. 1794W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 21 The battens made of wood or thin iron plates, which cross the boards. 1859Timbs & Gullick Painting 217 The best contrivance to preserve wood flat and sound is to strengthen the back with battens, or ledges.
3. Naut. A narrow strip of wood nailed to various parts of the masts and spars to preserve them from chafing; a similar strip used to fasten down the edges of the tarpaulin fixed over the hatchways to keep out the water in bad weather; also, a wooden bar (in place of a cleat) from which hammocks are slung.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) s.v., The battens serve to confine the edges of the tarpaulings down to the sides of the hatches. 1840Marryat Poor Jack i, We were permitted to..hoist her..up again to the battens. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast iii. 5 This chafing gear consists of..roundings, battens, and service of all kinds. Ibid. xxix. 98 We took the battens from the hatches, and opened the ship.
4. Comb., as batten-door, a door formed of narrow boards, held together by ‘battens’ or cross-pieces nailed to them. Cf. battened.
▪ II. batten, n.2|ˈbæt(ə)n|
[a corruption of F. battant (of same meaning).]
A movable bar or arm in a silk-loom which strikes in or closes the weft.
1831G. Porter Silk Manuf. 216 This batten is suspended by its bar from the upper framing of the loom. 1863Morn. Star 1 Jan. 6 The superior machinery containing numerous battens for making elaborate and also cheap figured goods.
▪ III. ˈbatten, n.3 dial.
A bundle of straw consisting of two or more sheaves.
(In most of the northern and midland dial. glossaries.)
▪ IV. † batten, a. Obs.
[Cf. next.]
= battle a.
1627Speed Eng. Abridged x. §3 Which [earth] by a sea⁓weed..and certaine kinde of fruitfull Sea-sand, they make so ranke and batten, as is vncredible.
▪ V. batten, v.1|ˈbæt(ə)n|
[First found in end of 16th c., but may have been in dialectal use before; app. a. ON. batna to improve, get better, recover, f. bati advantage, improvement, amelioration; cogn. w. Goth. gabatnan ‘to be advantaged, to be bettered, to profit,’ a neuter-passive form derived from *batan, bôt, batans ‘to be useful, to profit, to boot.’ Cf. also Du. baten to avail, yield profit, baat profit, gain, advantage, benefit, and see Grimm s.v. batten. A cogn. bat in sense of ‘profit, advantage, improvement,’ although not known as a separate word in Eng., is implied in the derivatives batt-able, bat-ful, batt-le adj. With all the senses cf. battle v.3]
1. intr. To grow better or improve in condition; esp. (of animals) to improve in bodily condition by feeding, to feed to advantage, thrive, grow fat.
1591Lyly Endym. iii. iii. 39 No, let him batten, when his tongue Once goes, a cat is not worse strung. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. iii. (1631) 21 It makes her fat you see. Shee battens with it. 1648Herrick Hesper. (1869) 214 We eate our own, and batten more, Because we feed on no man's score. 1684Dryden in Southerne's Disappoint. Prol. 53 Our women batten well on their good Nature. 1687― Hind & P. i. 390 Th' etherial pastures with so fair a flock..bat'ning on their food.
b. To feed gluttonously on, glut oneself; to gloat or revel in. (With indirect passive, to be battened on, in mod. writers.)
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 67 Could you on this faire Mountaine leaue to feed, And batten on this Moor? 1693W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 215 To batten in's own dung, fimo volutari. 1789Wolcott (P. Pindar) Subj. Painters Wks. 1812 II. 210 Dainty mud..In which they had been battening. 1830Tennyson Poems 130 Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep. 1833Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Poems (1850) I. 187 The strong carnivorous eagle shall..batten deep Upon thy dusky liver. 1879Dixon Brit. Cyprus viii. 78 A skeleton battened on by kites and crows.
c. fig. To thrive, grow fat, prosper (esp. in a bad sense, at the expense or to the detriment of another); to gratify a morbid mental craving.
1605B. Jonson Volpone in Campbell Spec. III. 185 And with these thoughts so battens, as if fate Would be as easily cheated on, as he. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 56 That religion should batten with blood. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) II. iii. ii. 91 Battening vampyre-like on a People next door to starvation. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit. x. 220 Melancholy sceptics with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history,—persecutions, inquisitions.
2. To grow fertile (as soil); to grow rank (as a plant).
1855Singleton Virgil I. 104 That twice should batten with our blood Emathia and Hæmus' spacious plains. 1859Holland Gold F. xxiv. 283 A potato—a bloated tuber that battens in the muck of other times.
†3. trans. To improve, feed to advantage, fatten up. Obs. (The pa. pple. battened, belonged orig. to the intr. sense; cf. well-grown, well-read, etc.)
[1611Cotgr. s.v. Advenu, Vne fille bien advenuë, well growne..well batned, or batled.] 1637Milton Lycidas 29 We drove a-field..Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. 1643J. Burroughes Exp. Hosea ii. (1852) 172 They did batten themselves and suck out the Egyptian manners and customs. 1790Cowper Iliad xxii. 107 As some fell serpent..batten'd with herbs Of baneful juice to fury.
†4. To fertilize (soil). Obs. rare.
1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxxv. 69/1 Others [rivers] doe so batten the ground that the meadowes even in the midst of winter grow greene.
▪ VI. batten, v.2|ˈbæt(ə)n|
[f. batten n.1]
1. To furnish or strengthen with battens.
1775Falch Day's Diving Vess. 26 These windlasses being battened and holed for common handspikes. 1794W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 17 Deal boardings firmly battened on the inside. 1881Mechanic §1651 The wall must be battened.
2. (chiefly Naut.) to batten down: to fasten down with battens; see batten n.1
1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 53 The severity of the climate having compelled them to batten down and caulk their abiding place. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 72 It is sometimes necessary in bad weather to put on the gratings and nail tarpaulings over them: this is called ‘battening down.’ 1883Chamb. Jrnl. 20 Batten down the hatches—quick, men. |