Word.ws English Dictionary

social battery

social battery noun: a notional battery representing one's energy for socializing, with the need to be periodically recharged.

Noun

social battery (plural social batteries)

  1. (figuratively, in plural, informal, often) A notional battery representing one's energy for socializing, with the need to be periodically recharged.
    • Although I enjoyed many social aspects of school, as an introvert I found some days particularly long and exhausting. These were times when books really came into their own for me, as I retreated into the school library to recharge my social batteries.2016 November 11, Fleur Morrison, “Introverts Can Be Saved By The Book”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 07 Sep 2023
    • I have never been to pride. Not that I don't like it, it's just not my thing. Too many fabulous queens and kings in one place really drains my social batteries.2018 June 20, Pierre-Antoine Louis, quoting Colton Smith, “Readers on Pride Month and L.G.B.T. Rights: 'An Ongoing Battle'.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN...
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see social, battery.
    • In the former case he may expose himself to a social battery of hostile criticism or even obloquy; […]1881 September 3, “The Opportunity of Unitarianism”, in The Christian Life: A Unitarian Journal, volume 7, London, →OCLC, page 432
    • Mrs Colonel Speedy, sitting in council over a five o’clock tea in her veranda, decreed that she herself and four other ladies of lesser degree should ‘call on’ the poor bride in due order of precedence, and bring all the social battery of the station to her relief.1887 October 1, “The Jullabad Tragedy”, in Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, volume 64, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers Publishers, →OCLC, page 632

Examples of social battery in a sentence

  • If you tend to be more introverted, the realization that your social battery doesn't hold a charge for the full duration of a social gathering can bring up feelings of discomfort or shame.2022 August 26, Eliza Brooke, “The introvert's guide to actually enjoying a party”, in Vox, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2023:
  • We now live in a world where people's social battery and capacity for friendship is slightly more limited than it was.2023 May 18, Anita Chaudhuri, quoting Hope Kelaher, “I've struggled to make friends since moving abroad – and it's making me lonely”, in...

Forms of social battery

pluralsocial batteries

Questions about social battery

What does social battery mean?
Social battery means a notional battery representing one's energy for socializing, with the need to be periodically recharged.
How do you use social battery in a sentence?
If you tend to be more introverted, the realization that your social battery doesn't hold a charge for the full duration of a social gathering can bring up feelings of discomfort or shame.
What part of speech is social battery?
Social battery is a noun.
What is the plural of social battery?
The plural of social battery is social batteries.

Words near social battery in the dictionary

  1. social atom
  2. social atoms
  3. social autopsies
  4. social autopsy
  5. social batteries
  6. social battery
  7. social bookmarking
  8. Social Brethren
  9. social butterflies
  10. social butterfly
  11. social call

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: social battery (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:

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