batten

Word family

bat·ten1 /ˈbætn/ verb

1 batten down the hatches

a) PREPAREto prepare yourself for a period of difficulty or trouble 作好准备面对困境

b) TTWto firmly fasten the entrances to the lower part of a ship 封住底舱入口

Examples from the Corpus

batten down the hatches• Businesses are focused on survival - everyone's battening down the hatches.

2. batten on somebody SPEND MONEY British EnglishBrE formal to live well by using someone else’s money, possessions etc – used to show disapproval 依靠某人养肥自己〔含贬义〕

Examples from the Corpus

batten• She could do nothing but batten down the conversational hatches and wait until the storm blew itself out.• Scholars will be battening on the footnotes for years to come.• The same mud which sucked at my shoe, battening on the heel like an animal.• Such societies or covens batten on their own secrecy.• It will be necessary to batten the ceiling to take the new boards.

Related topics: Construction

batten2 noun [countableC]

TBCa long narrow piece of wood that is attached to other pieces of wood or another building material to strengthen them and keep them in place 〔作固定用途的〕板条，压条

Examples from the Corpus

batten• I prized a batten off the wall behind my bed.• A dual batten option is commonplace, enabling the sail to be set soft if desired.• Dual batten system A way of saying that the sail can use full or half length battens.• And as an aid to drilling, make a simple template from a length of batten.• Fix the batten in place with angle brackets, then attach the blind with touch-and-close fastener.• I nailed the batten back on top.• The board is then cut to size and screwed on to the battens.

Origin batten2

(1600-1700) French bâton; → BATON

bat·ten1 verbbatten2 noun

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus