▪ I. † ˈbatable, a. Obs.
Also 7 bateable, 7–8 battable.
[Shortened form of debatable; cf. bate n.1]
Debatable, disputed; used esp. of the ‘debatable ground’ on the Scottish border.
| 1453 in Rymer Fœdera (1710) XI. 337 The Batable Landes in the Westmarch. 1531–2 Act 23 Hen. VIII, xvi, The batable grounde betwene England and Scotland. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 782 Called Batable ground, as one would say Litigious, because the English and the Scotish have litigiously contended about it. 1751 Chambers Cycl., Battable ground. [In mod. Dicts.] |
▪ II. batable
variant of battable a.1 Obs. fertile.