Word.ws English Dictionary

battening down the hatches

battening down the hatches is the present participle and gerund of batten down the hatches.

Meaning of batten down the hatches

Verb

batten down the hatches (third-person singular simple present battens down the hatches, present participle battening down the hatches, simple past and past participle battened down the hatches)

  1. (idiomatic) To prepare for trouble.
    • It's time to batten down the hatches and prepare for the coming challenge.

Questions about battening down the hatches

What is battening down the hatches the present participle and gerund of?
Battening down the hatches is the present participle and gerund of batten down the hatches.

Words near battening down the hatches in the dictionary

  1. batteneth
  2. Battenfield
  3. Battenfields
  4. battening
  5. battening down
  6. battening down the hatches
  7. battenings
  8. battenless
  9. battens
  10. battens down
  11. battens down the hatches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: battening down the hatches (page history and authors); batten down the hatches (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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