battery

== English == === Etymology === Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter +‎ -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled. === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/, (except sense 2) /ˈbæt͡ʃɹi/ (US) IPA(key): /ˈbæt.əɹi/ (Indic) IPA(key): /ˈbaʈ.(ə)ri/ Hyphenation: bat‧te‧ry Rhymes: -ætəɹi, -ætɹi === Noun === battery (countable and uncountable, plural batteries) (electricity, electronics, countable) A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. alkaline battery;   sodium-ion battery;   lead-acid battery (originally and sometimes still, strictly) Such a device that has multiple cells. 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. (metonymic, informal, uncountable) The energy stored in such a device. (law) The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence. Hypernym: violence Holonym: assault and battery Comeronym: assault Coordinate term: assault (military, countable) A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns. Such a group of a certain size (number of guns and artillerists), within a schema of military unit organization. (historical, archaic) An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed. An array of similar things. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs. (baseball) The catcher and the pitcher together (chess) Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal (music) A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance. The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired. in battery;   out of battery (archaic) Apparatus for preparing or serving meals. ==== Usage notes ==== The electrical sense (sense 1) originated in the precise distinction between a single cell and a battery of cells (that is, a collected set of cells), but that distinction is not upheld in current general usage: any such device, of one or more cells, is now called a battery in casual usage and is seldom called a cell except formally in technical usage. ==== Hyponyms ==== ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== → Bengali: ব্যাটারি (bêṭari) → Korean: 배터리 (baeteori) ==== Translations ==== === See also === accumulator assault