Battle Definition

bătl
battled, battles, battling
noun
battles
An encounter between opposing forces.
An important battle in the Pacific campaign.
American Heritage
A fight, esp. a large-scale engagement, between armed forces on land, at sea, or in the air.
Webster's New World
Armed fighting; combat.
Wounded in battle.
American Heritage
Armed fighting; combat or war.
Webster's New World
A match between two combatants.
Trial by battle.
American Heritage
verb
battled, battles, battling
To engage in or as if in battle.
American Heritage
To oppose as in a battle; fight.
Webster's New World
To take part in a battle; fight.
Webster's New World
To fight against.
Battled the enemy; battled cancer.
American Heritage
To try to overcome; struggle against or contend with.
A patient battling cancer.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
adjective

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England, agriculture) Improving; nutritious; fattening.

Battle grass, battle pasture.
Wiktionary

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England) Fertile; fruitful.

Battle soil, battle land.
Wiktionary
Synonyms:
pronoun

A habitational surname​ from places in England that have been sites of a battle.

Wiktionary
A town in East Sussex, supposed site of the Battle of Hastings.
Wiktionary
idiom
give battle
  • to engage in battle; fight
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Battle

Noun

Singular:
battle
Plural:
battles

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Battle

Origin of Battle

  • From Early Modern English batell, probably from Middle English *batel (“flourishing”), from Old English *batol (“improving, tending to be good”), from batian (“to get better, improve”), from Proto-Germanic *batōną, *bōtijaną (“to improve, atone, be favourable”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰAd- (“good”) +‎ -le. Related to North Frisian bate, baatsje (“to get better”), Dutch baten (“to benefit, avail, profit”), Low German batten (“to be sly”). Compare batten (“to improve, become better, fatten, flourish”). More at better.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English batel, from Old French bataille, from Vulgar Latin *battālia, from Late Latin battuālia (“fighting and fencing exercises”), from Latin battuō (“to strike, beat”), from Gaulish (compare Welsh bathu (“to strike money, coin, mint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bhau(t)- (“to knock”) (compare Latin fatuus (“silly, knocked silly”), Gothic (bauþs, “deaf, numb, dumbstruck”)).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English batel from Old French bataille from Vulgar Latin battālia from Late Latin battuālia fighting and fencing exercises from Latin battuere to beat

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Displaced native Old English hild (“battle”), Old English beadu (“battle, war”).

    From Wiktionary

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