Word.ws English Dictionary

battered

UK/ˈbætəd//ˈbætəɹd/

battered is the simple past and past participle of batter.

Adjective

battered (comparative more battered, superlative most battered)

  1. Beaten up through a lot of use; in rough condition; weathered.
    • The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
  2. Beaten repeatedly or consistently; beaten up.
    • While the defense lawyers have likened the condition to the post traumatic stress disorders afflicting war veterans and battered women, which have been used in other insanity defense cases, they have said that they know of no previous trials when a "black rage" defense has been raised.1997 April 7, Jonathan Rabinovitz, “Hearing Held on Bid to Repress Lawyers in Murder Case”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
    • There's also a wooden seat running the full length of the building - ideal for stopping to watch the wildlife on the seashore without getting battered by the weather!2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Grange-over-Sands”, in RAIL, number 948, page 28
  3. (informal) Drunk; inebriated.
  4. Coated with batter (noun).

Meaning of batter

Verb

batter (third-person singular simple present batters, present participle battering, simple past and past participle battered)

  1. To hit or strike violently and repeatedly.
    • The firemen battered down the door.
  2. To coat with batter (the food ingredient).
    • I prefer it when they batter the cod with breadcrumbs.
  3. (figuratively) To defeat soundly; to thrash.
    • Leeds United battered Charlton 7-0.
    Synonyms:
    thrash
  4. (UK, passive, slang, usually) To intoxicate.
    • That cocktail will batter you!
    Synonyms:
    intoxicate
  5. To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.
  6. (UK, obsolete) To coat in a paste-like substance; to fasten with a paste-like glue.
    • the bible mentioned in the oath emitted this day , by Andrew Murison , as the book and bible from whence the printed leaves , battered on the B. L. Coy's notes , now challenged as forged , are alleged to be taken1826, Thomas Beveridge, A Practical Treatise on the Forms of Process...

See all 16 meanings of batter

Forms of battered

comparativemore battered
superlativemost battered

Origin of battered

From batter + -ed.

Words formed from battered

Phrases with battered

Questions about battered

What does battered mean?
Battered means beaten up through a lot of use; in rough condition; weathered.
What is battered the simple past and past participle of?
Battered is the simple past and past participle of batter.
What part of speech is battered?
Battered is an adjective.
How do you pronounce battered?
Battered is pronounced /ˈbætəd/ (UK).

Words near battered in the dictionary

  1. batter's box
  2. batter's boxes
  3. batterable
  4. battercake
  5. battercakes
  6. battered
  7. battered baby syndrome
  8. battered child syndrome
  9. battered person syndrome
  10. battered sav
  11. battered savs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: battered (page history and authors); batter (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-battered.ogg.

Cite this entry: “battered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/battered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.