battle

noun

1. A contest, a struggle.

   “the battle of life”

   “I returned, and saw vnder the Sunne, That the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of vnderstanding, nor yet fauour to men of skil; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

   “[T]he whole intellectual battle that had at its centre the best poem of the best poet of that day, and had the English Revolution among issues of the strife, was quickening the energies within young Foe's [i.e., Daniel Defoe's] mind when his age was twenty.”

   “In truth, Tottenham never really looked like taking all three points and this defeat means they face a battle to reach the knockout stages – with their next home game against PAOK Salonika on 30 November likely to prove decisive.”

   “Australian broadcaster Clive James has admitted that he is losing his long-fought battle with leukaemia.”

2. A contest, a struggle.
3. A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; a combat, an engagement.
4. (archaic)A division of an army; a battalion.

   “Thenne kyng Arthur made redy his hooſt in x batails and Nero was redy in the felde afore the caſtel Tarabil with a grete hooſt / & he had x batails with many mo peple than Arthur had […]”

   “They ſay, that the King diuided his Armie into three Battailes; whereof the Vant-guard onely well ſtrengthened with wings, came to fight.”

   “Already Cæſar Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword: Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.”

   “No gentleman would appear in the field but on horſeback. To ſerve in any other manner he would have deemed derogatory to his rank. The cavalry, by way of distinction, was called The battle, and on it alone depended the fate of every action. The infantry, collected from the dregs and refuſe of the people, ill armed and worſe diſciplined; was of no account.”

   “Once I link up with Lord Bolton and the Freys, I will have more than twelve thousand men. I mean to divide them into three battles and start up the causeway a half-day apart.”

5. (obsolete)The main body of an army, as distinct from the vanguard and rear; the battalia.

   “Iohn Duke of Norfolke, Thomas Earle of Surrey, Shall haue the leading of the Foot and Horſe. They thus directed, we will fllow ^([sic]) In the maine Battell, whose puiſſance on either ſide Shall be well-winged with our cheefeſt Horſe: This, and Saint George to boote.”

   “hovering aloofe in the fields he suffered Wyat his Van and main Battell (cutting off some of the Reare) to march undisturbed save with one shot, from Knights-Bridge to Charing Chrosse.”

   “The artillery, under Waldmann, with whom Herter rode in company, was divided between the vanguard and the “battle,” or main body, which comprised the bulk of the army.”

6. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of battle buddy.

verb

1. (intransitive)To join in battle; to contend in fight

   “Scientists always battle over theories.”

   “She has been battling against cancer for years.”

   “Hard work is required from men and machines as I was to experience later when footplating Lambton No 5 on five bogies battling its way up Newtondale.”

2. (transitive)To fight or struggle; to enter into a battle with.

   “She has been battling cancer for years.”

3. (Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive)To feed or nourish (someone or something).
4. (Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive)To render (land, soil, etc.) fertile or fruitful.

   “To Devonſhire or Denſhire land. That is, to pare off the ſurface or top turf thereof, and to lay it upon heaps and burn it; vvhich aſhes are a marvelous improvement to battle barren land, by reaſon of the fixt ſalt vvhich they contain.”

adj

1. Of grass or pasture: nutritious to cattle or sheep; fattening, nourishing.

   “battle grass    battle pasture”

2. (broadly)Of land (originally pastureland) or soil: fertile, fruitful.

   “battle land    battle soil”

name

1. A habitational surname from Middle English from places in England that have been sites of a battle.
2. A place name:
3. A place name:
4. A place name:
5. (historical)A place name: