battery

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of beating or pounding.
2. n. Law The unlawful and unwanted touching or striking of one person by another, with the intention of bringing about a harmful or offensive contact.
3. n. An emplacement for one or more pieces of artillery.
4. n. A set of guns or other heavy artillery, as on a warship.
5. n. An army artillery unit, corresponding to a company in the infantry.
6. n. An array of similar things intended for use together: took a battery of achievement tests.
7. n. An impressive body or group: a battery of political supporters.
8. n. Baseball The pitcher and catcher.
9. n. Music The percussion section of an orchestra.
10. n. Electricity Two or more connected cells that produce a direct current by converting chemical energy to electrical energy.
11. n. Electricity A single cell, such as a dry cell, that produces an electric current.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of battering; attack or assault, with the view of beating down, as by a battering-ram or by ordnance.
2. n. In law, the unlawful beating of another. The least degree of violence, or even the touching or spitting in the face of another, in anger or insolence, constitutes a battery. Every battery includes an assault, though an assault does not necessarily imply that it must be such as to threaten a battery. See assault.
3. n. The instrument or agency employed in battering or attacking: as, a battery of guns; a battery of abuse. Specifically
4. n. Milit.: A body of cannon for field operations, consisting generally of from 4 to 8 guns, with complement of wagons, artillerymen, etc. The armament of a ship of war: as, the Colorado's battery consists of 46 nine-inch guns.
5. n. The personnel or complement of officers and men attached to a military battery.
6. n. In fortification, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and others from the enemy's shot, with the guns employed; a fortified work mounting artillery.
7. n. In base-ball, the pitcher and catcher together: as, the work of the battery was excellent.
8. n. In frictional elect., a number of Leyden jars usually arranged with their inner coatings connected together, and their outer coatings also connected, so that they may all be charged and discharged at the same time. If arranged so that the inner coating of one is in connection with the outer coating of the next, and so on, they are said to be charged (or discharged) in cascade.
9. n. In voltaic elect., a voltaic cell, or more properly a number of voltaic cells (see cell) arranged together so as to give a powerful current of electricity. The way in which the cells are coupled depends upon the nature of the current which is desired and the relation between the external and internal resistance. (See resistance.) For example, if the cells are arranged in series, the copper of the first with the zinc of the next, and so on, the result is to give) the maximum electromotive force; on the other hand, if arranged abreast, all the zincs being connected together, and all the copper plates together, the electromotive force is the same as for a single cell, but the internal or battery resistance is diminished, and hence the strength of the current or the quantity of electricity may, under certain conditions, be much increased. The first method is sometimes spoken of in popular language as the arrangement for intensity, the second for quantity. An early form of battery was Volta's pile, and another his couronne des tasses, or “crown of cups.” The different kinds of battery are named according to the materials or the form of the cells of which they are composed, or the way in which the cells are arranged. Some of the commoner kinds are the Daniell, Grove, Bunsen, Le Clanché, gravity, bichromate, etc. For a description of these and others, see cell.
10. n. In optics, a series of lenses or of prisms, as in the spectroscope, combined in use.
11. n. In machinery, an assemblage of similar constructions or parts: as, a battery of boilers; a battery of stamps in a stamping-mill; a battery of sugar-kettles.
12. n. In the manufacture of nitric acid, a combination of large bottles and carboys serving as a condensing apparatus for the acid vapors.
13. n. In hat-making, a large open boiler containing water to which some sulphuric acid has been added. It is surrounded by planks which slope toward the center, and is used in felting.
14. n. Metals, or articles of metal, especially of brass or copper, wrought by hammering; hammered metals or utensils; especially, apparatus for preparing or serving meals; all metallic utensils of service for the kitchen. Compare batteria.
15. n. An oblong box submerged to the rim in the water, used as a boat, and for concealment, by persons engaged in shooting wild fowl; a sink-boat.
16. n. In coal-mining: A structure built of timber, to keep the coal in the breast or prevent it from sliding down the shute. A platform on which miners stand while working in thin and steeply pitching beds of coal.
17. n. In lumbering, two or more donkey-engines for dragging logs, set at intervals on along skid-road.
18. n. In indigo-manuf., a series of vats which are conducted as a unit. They may be either steeping-vats or beating-vats. See vat.
19. n. A set of stamps in a stamp-mill, comprising the number which fall in one mortar.
20. n. In cœlenterates, a group of stinging-cells.
21. n. A shield or shelter designed to hide the shooters in a grouse-drive; a butt used on English and Scotch moors. They are usually formed of blocks of peat or turf, cut with a spade and built up in the form of wall, circular, horseshoe, or semicircular in shape.
22. n. In harpsichord music, an effect produced by striking a chord in quick repetition for greater sonority. It was indicated by prefixing a vertical curve to the notes of the chord.

Wiktionary

1. n. A device that produces electricity by a chemical reaction between two substances (Wikipedia).
2. n. law The crime or tort of intentionally striking another person.
3. n. A coordinated group of artillery.
4. n. An array of similar things.
5. n. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
6. n. baseball The catcher and the pitcher together
7. n. chess Two or more major pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of battering or beating.
2. n. (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. n. Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense.
4. n. Two or more pieces of artillery in the field.
5. n. 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.
6. n. A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously.
7. n. An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity.
8. n. A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts
9. n. (Metallurgy) A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals.
10. n. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down.
11. n. (Baseball) The pitcher and catcher together.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target
2. n. a device that produces electricity; may have several primary or secondary cells arranged in parallel or series
3. n. a unit composed of the pitcher and catcher
4. n. group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place
5. n. a series of stamps operated in one mortar for crushing ores
6. n. an assault in which the assailant makes physical contact
7. n. a collection of related things intended for use together