Word.ws English Dictionary

battledore and shuttlecock

battledore and shuttlecock noun: an early version of the game badminton.

Noun

battledore and shuttlecock (uncountable)

  1. (historical) An early version of the game badminton.
    • But I stayed out a few minutes longer with Adele and Pilot—ran a race with her, and played a game of battledore and shuttlecock.1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ch XV, p242
    • At night before I slept alternate horrors of ruin buffeted me this way and that in an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock.1953 — Bertrand Russell, 'Satan in the Suburbs' or ' Horrors Manufactured Here' . (A short story published in 'Satan in the Suburbs and other stories', Penguin Books (1953), at p.19.)

Questions about battledore and shuttlecock

What does battledore and shuttlecock mean?
Battledore and shuttlecock means an early version of the game badminton.
What part of speech is battledore and shuttlecock?
Battledore and shuttlecock is a noun.

Words near battledore and shuttlecock in the dictionary

  1. battled it out
  2. battled out
  3. battledoor
  4. battledoors
  5. battledore
  6. battledore and shuttlecock
  7. battledores
  8. battledress
  9. battledresses
  10. battlefield
  11. Battlefielder

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: battledore and shuttlecock (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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