battery
Definitions
General English
Agriculture
- noun a large number of small cages, usually arranged in rows one above the other, in which many birds or animals, especially chickens, are kept
Aviation
- noun a chemical device that produces electrical current
Cars & Driving
- noun on most cars, a lead-acid storage battery, usually of 12 volts
Commerce
- noun a series of similar things
Construction
- A device in which electrochemical action is employed to store and provide direct electric current.
Electronics
- A source of DC power that incorporates two or more cells (1). Cell and battery are commonly used interchangeably, although a battery consists of more than one cell. Its abbreviations are B, and BAT. Also called electric battery.
- symbolB
Information & Library Science
- noun a large number of things or people
Law
- noun the crime or tort of using force against another person.
Military
- noun a company-sized artillery grouping with six or more guns
- noun a power source for portable electrical equipment
- abbreviationBty
Origin & History of “battery”
The original meaning of battery in English was literally ‘hitting’, as in assault and battery. It came from Old French batterie, a derivative of batre, battre ‘beat’ (from which English also gets batter (14th c.)). The ultimate source of this, and of English battle, was Latin battuere ‘beat’. The development of the word’s modern diversity of senses was via ‘bombardment by artillery’, to ‘unit of artillery’, to ‘electric cell’: it seems that this last meaning was inspired by the notion of ‘discharge of electricity’ rather than ‘connected series of cells’.
