battery

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“battre”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie.

noun

1. (countable, electronics) A device used to power electric devices, consisting of a set of electrically connected electrochemical or, archaically, electrostatic cells. A single such cell when used by itself.
   1749 Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson Upon this We made what we call’d an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm’d with thin leaden Plates, pasted on each Side... A Turky is to be killed for our Dinners by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a Fire kindled by the Electrified Bottle; when the Healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns from the Electrical Battery.
   [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). 2012, John Karsnitz et al., Engineering Design: An Introduction, page 364
   [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. 2012, Christian Glaize, Sylvie Genies, Lead and Nickel Electrochemical Batteries, page 6
2. (law) The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which includes the threat of impending violence.
   […] 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. 2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, 5th edition, 7.2.2-3, pages 221–222
   He offered three types of battery for which Mr. Trump might be liable under New York law: rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching. 2023-05-09, Lola Fadulu, “New York law gave jurors three types of battery to consider in the Trump case.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (countable) A coordinated group of artillery weapons.
   the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces. 2005, Barry Leonard, Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War, page 20
4. (historical, archaic) 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". 2015, Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg, pages 142–143
   such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon. 1780, John Robertson et al., The Elements of Navigation, page 53
   His grand battery was as badly provided with cannon as his little battery, for not a single gun was mounted on either. 1776, Charles Carroll, Brantz Mayer, Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, page 97
   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. 1766, John Entick, A New and Accurate History and Survey of London, page 337
5. An array of similar things.
   Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.
6. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
7. (baseball) The catcher and the pitcher together
8. (chess) Two or more major pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal
9. (music) A marching percussion ensemble; a drumline.
10. The state of a firearm when it is possible to be fired.
11. (archaic) Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.