battery

noun

1. (countable)A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.

   “alkaline battery”

   “sodium-ion battery”

   “lead-acid battery”

   “His flashlight takes two AA batteries.”

   “His car takes a 550-CCA lead-acid battery.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.

   “Her phone needs a new battery because its present battery no longer holds a charge well.”

   “[For his experiments with electricity,] Benjamin Franklin utilized Leyden jars and referred to several jars hooked together as a battery (after a "battery" of cannon).”

   “[The voltage of a single cell is] too low for most applications [... so] a series of cells will be used to obtain the desired voltage – a "battery" of cells, in the strictest sense of the term.”

3. (informal, metonymically, uncountable)The energy stored in such a device.

   “Her phone did not have enough battery for another phone call.”

   “A: How much battery do you have left? B: Only 63%.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence.

   “Holonym: assault and battery”

   “[…] A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. […] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault […] although this was a battery.”

   “He offered three types of battery for which Mr. Trump might be liable under New York law: rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching.”

   “An order asserted itself, and the hoods on the furnaces were oped wide, and a final march was organized. The wails of the injured and the roars of the dead-on-the-march overwhelmed the tinny speakers in the cell, and they all watched as nearly one thousand people reduced themselves to a few frantic hundred in less than an hour, then settled into a sustained orgy of battery, rapine and rape with no end in sight but the total depopulation of the entire facility.”

5. (countable)A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.

   “Outside the ancient fort, you can still see worn areas in the stone where the batteries were once placed.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.

   “They sent four batteries southward in an attempt to shore up the defenses around the depot.”

   “the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces.”

7. (archaic, countable, historical, uncountable)An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.

   “The construction of advanced batteries mirrored that of those built along the line of circumvallation. [...] Although Mahan demanded that batteries be constructed to exacting dimensions and revetted with gabions, fascines, and sandbags, at Vicksburg the resources at hand determined what materials soldiers used to build what they termed artillery "forts".”

   “such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon.”

   “His grand battery was as badly provided with cannon as his little battery, for not a single gun was mounted on either.”

   “On this wharf [Tower Bridge wharf] there is a long and beautiful platform, on which are planted 61 pieces of cannon [...] Devil's Battery, where is also a platform, on which are mounted seven pieces of cannon, although on the battery itself there are only five.”

8. (countable, uncountable)An array of similar things.

   “Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.”

9. (countable, uncountable)A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.

   “‘Do you know how battery chickens live?’”

10. (countable, uncountable)The catcher and the pitcher together
11. (countable, uncountable)Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal
12. (countable, uncountable)A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance.
13. (countable, uncountable)The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired.

    “in battery”

    “out of battery”

    “In this circumstance, you will have to rack the slide to get back in battery.”

14. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

name

1. A park in Manhattan, New York City.