baton

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Music A slender wooden stick or rod used by a conductor to direct an orchestra or band.
2. n. A hollow metal rod with a heavy rubber tip or tips that is wielded and twirled by a drum major or drum majorette.
3. n. A short staff carried by certain public officials as a symbol of office.
4. n. Sports The hollow cylinder that is carried by each member of a relay team in a running race and passed to the next team member.
5. n. A short stick carried by police; a billy club.
6. n. Heraldry A shortened narrow bend, often signifying bastardy.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A staff or club; a truncheon: carried either for use as a weapon, as a policeman's baton;
2. n. as a mark of authority, as the baton of a field-marshal; or.
3. n. as a warrant to do something, as the baton or staff carried in Great Britain by the engineer of a train on a single-track railway, as his authority to proceed.
4. n. In music: The stick or wand used by the leader of a chorus or an orchestra in directing the performance.
5. n. A rest of two or more measures.
6. n. In heraldry, same as baston, 1 .
7. n. Also spelled batton.
8. To strike with a baton; cudgel.

Wiktionary

1. n. A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal
2. n. music The stick of a conductor in musical performances.
3. n. sports An object transferred by runners in a relay race.
4. n. A short stout club used primarily by policemen.
5. n. heraldry An abatement in coats of arms to denote illegitimacy. (Also spelled batune, baston).
6. v. To strike with a baton.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes.
2. n. (Her.) An ordinary with its ends cut off, borne sinister as a mark of bastardy, and containing one fourth in breadth of the bend sinister; -- called also bastard bar. See Bend sinister.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a short stout club used primarily by policemen
2. n. a hollow metal rod that is wielded or twirled by a drum major or drum majorette
3. n. a short staff carried by some officials to symbolize an office or an authority
4. n. a hollow cylinder passed from runner to runner in a relay race
5. n. a thin tapered rod used by a conductor to lead an orchestra or choir