Definition

1. Noun:

   • A liquid or semiliquid mixture used in cooking: A thick, pourable mixture of ingredients like flour, eggs, and milk, used to make foods such as pancakes, cakes, or fried items.
   • (Baseball) The player at bat: In baseball or softball, the offensive player whose turn it is to face the pitcher and attempt to hit the ball.

2. Verb:

   • To strike repeatedly with heavy blows: To hit something hard and often, causing damage or destruction.
   • To damage or dent by striking: To cause a surface to become misshapen or dented through forceful impact.
   • (Of wind, waves, etc.) To strike against forcefully: To pound or beat against something with repeated force.

Examples of Usage

• Noun (Cooking mixture):

  • Pour the pancake batter onto the hot griddle.
  • The recipe calls for a smooth, lump-free batter.

• Noun (Baseball player):

  • The next batter stepped up to the plate.
  • She is the team's best batter.

• Verb (To strike repeatedly):

  • The storm began to batter the coastline.
  • He used a hammer to batter the metal into shape.
  • The boxer battered his opponent with a series of powerful punches.

Advanced Usage

• "Battered" (Adjective): Describing something that has been damaged by repeated blows or hard use.

  • They lived in a battered old house by the sea.
  • He arrived home in a battered car.

• "To batter down": To break or destroy something, especially a door or barrier, by hitting it repeatedly.

  • The police had to batter down the door to enter the building.

Variants and Related Words

• Battering (Noun): The act of striking something repeatedly; a severe beating.

  • The old ship could not withstand the constant battering of the waves.

• Batter (Noun, Architecture): A receding upward slope of a wall or structure. (Note: This is a specialized, less common meaning.)

  • The fortress walls were built with a slight batter for added stability.

Synonyms

• Verb: Pound, pummel, beat, hammer, strike, buffet.
• Noun (Player): Hitter, batsman.
• Noun (Mixture): Dough (though "dough" is typically thicker), mix.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Batter away: To repeatedly hit at something, often to remove it or get past it.

  • He tried to batter away the ice blocking the door.

• Batter at/against: To strike repeatedly against a surface.

  • Rain battered against the windowpane all night.

Related Idioms

• "Battered and bruised": Physically injured and worn out, either literally or metaphorically.

  • After the long campaign, the politician emerged battered and bruised.

• "Take a battering": To suffer severe damage, criticism, or defeat.

  • The company's reputation took a battering after the scandal.

Noun

1. a liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, eggs, and milk, used in cooking
2. (baseball) a ballplayer who is batting

Verb

1. make a dent or impression in
   • dinge a soft hat
2. strike violently and repeatedly
   • She clobbered the man who tried to attack her
3. strike against forcefully
   • Winds buffeted the tent