n. (Physics) Matter whch is composed of antiparticles such as antiprotons, positrons, and antineutrons. [ PJC ]

n. [ AS. &aemacr_;tter. ] Poison; venom; corrupt matter from a sore. [ Obs. ] Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. attercoppa a spider; &aemacr_;tter poison + coppa head, cup. ] 1. A spider. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A peevish, ill-natured person. [ North of Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ It. atterrare (cf. LL. atterrare to cast to earth); L. ad + terra earth, land. ] To fill up with alluvial earth. [ Obs. ] Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of filling up with earth, or of forming land with alluvial earth. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Battered p. pr. & vb. n. Battering. ] [ OE. bateren, OF. batre, F. battre, fr. LL. battere, for L. batuere to strike, beat; of unknown origin. Cf. Abate, Bate to abate. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish; as, to batter a wall or rampart. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage. “Each battered jade.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Metallurgy) To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. batere, batire; cf. OF. bateure, bature, a beating. See Batter, v. t. ] 1. A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc., beaten together and used in cookery. King. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Paste of clay or loam. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Printing) A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope of a wall is regulated in building. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. (Arch.) To slope gently backward. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The one who wields the bat in baseball; the one whose turn it is at bat; formerly called the batsman. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

adj. 1. In deplorable condition; as, the battered old Ford station wagon.
Syn. -- beat-up, beaten-up, bedraggled, broken-down, dilapidated, ramshackle, tumble-down, unsound. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Hit or pounded repeatedly and violently with heavy blows; as, a battered old car; antomyn of unbattered. [ Narrower terms: buffeted; storm-tossed, tempest-tossed, tempest-tost, tempest-swept ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. Damaged especially by hard usage. his battered old hat [ WordNet 1.5 ]

4. beaten repeatedly; -- of people; as, a battered child; the battered woman syndrome; a battered wife.
Syn. -- beaten. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who, or that which, batters. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the act or process of subjecting to strong repeated blows.
Syn. -- banging. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It was a large beam, with a head of iron, which was sometimes made to resemble the head of a ram. It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and so balanced as to swing backward and forward, and was impelled by men against the wall. Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A blacksmith's hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Mil.) A train of artillery for siege operations. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Batteries [ F. batterie, fr. battre. See Batter, v. t. ] 1. The act of battering or beating. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mil.) (a) Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense. (b) Two or more pieces of artillery in the field. (c) A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns. [ 1913 Webster ]

Barbette battery. See Barbette. --
Battery d'enfilade, or
Enfilading battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work. --
Battery en écharpe, one that plays obliquely. --
Battery gun, a gun capable of firing a number of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load. --
Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery. --
In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing. --
Masked battery, a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy. --
Out of battery, or
From battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Elec.) (a) A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously. (b) An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the trough battery, copper and zinc plates, connected in pairs, divide the trough into cells, which are filled with an acid or oxidizing liquid; the effect is exhibited when wires connected with the two end-plates are brought together. In Daniell's battery, the metals are zinc and copper, the former in dilute sulphuric acid, or a solution of sulphate of zinc, the latter in a saturated solution of sulphate of copper. A modification of this is the common gravity battery, so called from the automatic action of the two fluids, which are separated by their specific gravities. In Grove's battery, platinum is the metal used with zinc; two fluids are used, one of them in a porous cell surrounded by the other. In Bunsen's or the carbon battery, the carbon of gas coke is substituted for the platinum of Grove's. In Leclanché's battery, the elements are zinc in a solution of ammonium chloride, and gas carbon surrounded with manganese dioxide in a porous cell. A secondary battery is a battery which usually has the two plates of the same kind, generally of lead, in dilute sulphuric acid, and which, when traversed by an electric current, becomes charged, and is then capable of giving a current of itself for a time, owing to chemical changes produced by the charging current. A storage battery is a kind of secondary battery used for accumulating and storing the energy of electrical charges or currents, usually by means of chemical work done by them; an accumulator. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts; as, a battery of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Metallurgy) A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Baseball) The pitcher and catcher together. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To flatter excessively. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To scatter over. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cover sparsely by scattering (something); to strew. “With flowers bescattered.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bespattered p. pr. & vb. n. Bespattering. ] 1. To soil by spattering; to sprinkle, esp. with dirty water, mud, or anything which will leave foul spots or stains. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To asperse with calumny or reproach. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whom never faction could bespatter. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Blattered ] [ L. blaterare to babble: cf. F. blatérer to bleat. ] To prate; to babble; to rail; to make a senseless noise; to patter. [ Archaic ] “The rain blattered.” Jeffrey. [ 1913 Webster ]

They procured . . . preachers to blatter against me, . . . so that they had place and time to belie me shamefully. Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. blateratio a babbling. ] Blattering. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who blatters; a babbler; a noisy, blustering boaster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Senseless babble or boasting. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. blatero, -onis. ] A senseless babbler or boaster. [ Obs. ] “I hate such blatteroons.” Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

See under Battery. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Chattered p. pr. & vb. n. Chattering. ] [ Of imitative origin. Cf. Chat, v. i. Chitter. ] 1. To utter sounds which somewhat resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct. [ 1913 Webster ]

The jaw makes answer, as the magpie chatters. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To talk idly, carelessly, or with undue rapidity; to jabber; to prate. [ 1913 Webster ]

To tame a shrew, and charm her chattering tongue. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make a noise by rapid collisions. [ 1913 Webster ]

With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To utter rapidly, idly, or indistinctly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Begin his witless note apace to chatter. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Sounds like those of a magpie or monkey; idle talk; rapid, thoughtless talk; jabber; prattle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Your words are but idle and empty chatter. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Noise made by collision of the teeth, as in shivering. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or habit of chattering. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A prater; an idle talker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A bird of the family Ampelidæ -- so called from its monotonous note. The Bohemion chatterer (Ampelis garrulus) inhabits the arctic regions of both continents. In America the cedar bird is a more common species. See Bohemian chatterer, and Cedar bird. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (a) (Mach.) One of the fine undulations or ripples which are formed on the surface of work by a cutting tool which chatters. (b) (Geol.) A short crack on a rock surface planed smooth by a glacier. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. To make a rattling noise with. [ 1913 Webster ]

You clatter still your brazen kettle. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Clattered p. pr. & vb. n. Clattering. ] [ AS. cla&unr_;rung a rattle, akin to D. klateren to rattle. Cf. Clack. ] 1. To make a rattling sound by striking hard bodies together; to make a succession of abrupt, rattling sounds. [ 1913 Webster ]

Clattering loud with iron clank. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To talk fast and noisily; to rattle with the tongue. [ 1913 Webster ]

I see thou dost but clatter. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A rattling noise, esp. that made by the collision of hard bodies; also, any loud, abrupt sound; a repetition of abrupt sounds. [ 1913 Webster ]

The goose let fall a golden egg
With cackle and with clatter. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Commotion; disturbance. “Those mighty feats which made such a clatter in story.” Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Rapid, noisy talk; babble; chatter. “Hold still thy clatter.” Towneley Myst. (15 th Cent. ). [ 1913 Webster ]

Throw by your clatter
And handle the matter. B. Jonson [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who clatters. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. With clattering. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, makes flat or flattens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Metal Working) (a) A flat-faced fulling hammer. (b) A drawplate with a narrow, rectangular orifice, for drawing flat strips, as watch springs, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Flattered p. pr. & vb. n. Flattering. ] [ OE. flateren, cf. OD. flatteren; akin to G. flattern to flutter, Icel. flaðra to fawn, flatter: cf. F. flatter. Cf. Flitter, Flutter, Flattery. ] 1. To treat with praise or blandishments; to gratify or attempt to gratify the self-love or vanity of, esp. by artful and interested commendation or attentions; to blandish; to cajole; to wheedle. [ 1913 Webster ]

When I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. Prov. xxix. 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

Others he flattered by asking their advice. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To raise hopes in; to encourage or favorable, but sometimes unfounded or deceitful, representations. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To portray too favorably; to give a too favorable idea of; as, his portrait flatters him. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To use flattery or insincere praise. [ 1913 Webster ]

If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or adjure. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who flatters. [ 1913 Webster ]

The most abject flaterers degenerate into the greatest tyrants. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That flatters (in the various senses of the verb); as, a flattering speech. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

A flattering painter, who made it his care,
To draw men as they ought be, not as they are. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. With flattery. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Flatteries [ OE. flaterie, OF. flaterie, F. flaterie, fr. flater to flatter, F. flatter; of uncertain origin. See Flatter, v. t. ] The act or practice of flattering; the act of pleasing by artful commendation or compliments; adulation; false, insincere, or excessive praise. [ 1913 Webster ]

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. Rambler. [ 1913 Webster ]

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver. Burke.

Syn. -- Adulation; compliment; obsequiousness. See Adulation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An implement with a flat part (a mesh of metal or plastic) and a long handle, used to kill insects by striking them. The handle is typically about one foot long and the flat mesh at the end (usually of plastic) is about 5 inces square.
Syn. -- swatter. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. [ From a negro minstrel song called “The ham-fat man.” ] A low-grade actor or performer; a ham. [ Theatrical Slang ]
Syn. -- ham. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ Prov. E., to entangle; cf. LG. verhaddern, verheddern, verhiddern. ] To tire or worry; -- with out. [ Obs. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who makes or sells hats. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. ] (Zool.) A New Zealand lizard, which, in anatomical character, differs widely from all other existing lizards. It is the only living representative of the order Rhynchocephala, of which many Mesozoic fossil species are known; -- called also Sphenodon, tuatara, and Tuatera. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OE. later, lætter, compar. of lat late. See Late, and cf. Later. ] 1. Later; more recent; coming or happening after something else; -- opposed to former; as, the former and latter rain. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of two things, the one mentioned second. [ 1913 Webster ]

The difference between reason and revelation, and in what sense the latter is superior. I. Watts. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Recent; modern. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hath not navigation discovered in these latter ages, whole nations at the bay of Soldania? Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Last; latest; final. [ R. ] “My latter gasp.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Latter harvest, the last part of the harvest. --
Latter spring, the last part of the spring of the year. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]