batter

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
batter1

▶verb

• 1 strike repeatedly with hard blows.

  ■ subject (one's spouse, partner, or child) to repeated violence and assault.

• 2 (usu. as noun battering) criticize severely or defeat heavily.

– derivatives
batterer noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. batre ‘to beat’ (from L. battuere) + -er4.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
batter2

▶noun a mixture of flour, egg, and milk or water, used for making pancakes or coating food before frying.

■ N. Amer. a mixture of ingredients for a cake.

– origin ME: from OFr. bateure ‘the action of beating’, from batre ‘to beat’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
batter3

▶noun a player who bats in baseball.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
batter4

▶verb (of a wall) slope backwards from the perpendicular. ▶noun a backwards slope in a wall.

– origin C16: of unknown origin.