▪ I. battering, vbl. n.
(ˈbætərɪŋ)
[f. batter v.1]
1. The action of beating with successive blows, esp. in Mil. of attacking a fortification with cannon or other engines. Also fig.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 220 a, His manier of battreyng. 1647 W. Browne Polex. ii. 180 The Turkes..after two daies battering, wonne it [the palace] by force. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §43 A most Effectual Engine..for the battering of all their Atheistical Structure down about their Ears. 1862 Thackeray Philip I. 89 Amidst enthusiastic battering of glasses. |
2. The result of this action; bruising or defacement caused by successive blows.
| 1558 Phaër æneid in Webbe Eng. Poetrie (1870) 50 Helmets, skulles, with battrings marrd. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Desabollar, to beate out the batterings in a peece of armor or plate. |
3. attrib. a. in ancient warfare, battering-engine, an engine constructed for breaking down walls; so battering-machine, battering-ram. b. in modern warfare, battering-train, a number of cannon specially intended for siege purposes; so battering-artillery, battering-cannon, battering-gun, battering-piece. c. battering-charge, the full charge of powder for a cannon.
| a. 1774 J. Collyer Hist. Eng. II. 84 He assaulted the castle..with battering engines. 1852 Grote Greece ii. lxxxi. X. 560 He distributed his army into two parts, each provided with battering machines. |
| b. 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 875/1 They raised their siege, cheeflie bicause they had no great battering peeces to ouerthrow the walles. 1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3319/2 Having ordered a Train of Battering Artillery to be provided. 1753 Hanway Trav. I. vii. xcvii. 452 Ten pieces of large brass battering Cannon. 1810 Wellington in Gurwood Disp. V. 593 They are bringing a Battering Train into Spain from France. |
| c. 1868 Morn. Star 17 June, A charge of 100lb. is now considered the full battering charge. 1885 Pall Mall G. 13 Apr. 2/1 With a full battering charge (900lb. of powder). |
▪ II. battering, ppl. a.1
(ˈbætərɪŋ)
Also 6 batring.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That batters or violently assails with blows.
| 1587 Gascoigne Flowers, Hearbs, etc. 290 Such batring tiro this pamph[l]et here bewraies. 1791 Cowper Iliad v. 38 Town-battering Mars! 1871 Farrar Witn. Hist. iii. 102 The battering violence of his impassioned rhetoric. |
▪ III. ˈbattering, ppl. a.2 Arch.
[f. batter v.2 + -ing2.]
Leaning away from the perpendicular, with an inward or receding slope.
| 1589 P. Ive Fortif. 25 The rampier must be raised, scarping, battering, or comming in, for euery one foot of height, one foot of scarpe. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 339 The..Battering surface, whence all projectures arise. |