batter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows.
2. v. To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse.
3. v. To damage, as by heavy wear.
4. v. To pound repeatedly with heavy blows.
5. n. Printing A damaged area on the face of type or on a plate.
6. n. Sports The player at bat in baseball and cricket.
7. n. A liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, milk, and eggs, used in cooking.
8. v. To coat in batter: battered the vegetables and then fried them.
9. n. A slope, as of the outer face of a wall, that recedes from bottom to top.
10. v. To construct so as to create an upwardly receding slope.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To beat upon or against; strike with repeated blows; pound violently, as with the fist, a hammer or bludgeon, a battering-ram, cannon-shot, etc.: as, to batter a door for admittance; to batter the walls of a city (with or without effect).
2. To bruise, break, or shatter by beating; injure the substance of by blows; pound out of form or condition: as, to batter a person's countenance; a battered wall or tower; to batter type (that is, bruise the face of it).
3. In forging, to spread outwardly, as the ends of a metal bar or rod, by hammering; upset.
4. To act by beating or striking; use repeated blows; practise pounding: as, to batter away at a door; to batter upon a wall; battering cannon.
5. Specifically, to attempt to breach an enemy's works by means of a battery mounted in the third parallel. To batter in breach, a sufficient number of guns should be employed to maintain a practically continuous fire, so as to prevent the enemy from repairing the damage, and to obtain the cumulative effect due to heavy firing against a single point. Breaching is sometimes accomplished by firing simultaneous or alternate volleys from two or more batteries.
6. n. A heavy blow.
7. n. In printing, a blur or defect in a sheet produced by battered type; a spot showing the broken state of the type.
8. n. In ceramics, a mallet used to flatten out wet clay before molding. See batting-block.
9. To incline from the perpendicular: said of a wall whose face recedes as it rises: opposed to overhang.
10. n. A mixture of several ingredients, as flour, eggs, salt, etc., beaten together with some liquid, used in cookery.
11. n. Flour and water made into paste; specifically, the paste used in sizing cloth.
12. To paste together; cover with things pasted on: as, to batter the walls with placards.
13. n. One who bats; especially, in base-ball and cricket, one who wields the bat; the batsman.

Wiktionary

1. v. To hit or strike violently and repeatedly.
2. v. To coat with batter (the food ingredient).
3. v. To defeat soundly; to thrash
4. v. UK, slang To intoxicate
5. n. A beaten mixture of flour and liquid (usually egg and milk), used for baking (e.g. pancakes, cake, or yorkshire pudding) or to coat food (e.g. fish) prior to frying
6. n. A binge, a heavy drinking session.
7. v. architecture To slope (of walls, buildings etc.).
8. n. An incline on the outer face of a built wall.
9. n. The person who tries to hit the ball in a sport like baseball.
10. n. cricket A batsman.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish.
2. v. To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage.
3. v. (Metallurgy) To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.
4. n. A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc., beaten together and used in cookery.
5. n. Paste of clay or loam.
6. n. (Printing) A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form.
7. n. A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope.
8. v. (Arch.) To slope gently backward.
9. n. The one who wields the bat in baseball; the one whose turn it is at bat; formerly called the batsman.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. strike violently and repeatedly
2. n. a liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, eggs, and milk, used in cooking
3. v. strike against forcefully
4. v. make a dent or impression in
5. n. (baseball) a ballplayer who is batting