battery

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Electricity A device containing an electric cell or a series of electric cells storing chemical energy that can be converted into electrical power, usually in the form of direct current.
• noun The act of beating or pounding.
• noun Law The unlawful and unwanted touching or striking of one person by another, with the intention of bringing about a harmful or offensive contact.
• noun An emplacement for one or more pieces of artillery.
• noun A set of guns or other heavy artillery, as on a warship.
• noun An army artillery unit, corresponding to a company in the infantry.
• noun An array of similar things intended for use together.
• noun An impressive body or group.
• noun Baseball A pitcher and catcher considered as a unit.
• noun Music The percussion section of an orchestra.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In lumbering, two or more donkey-engines for dragging logs, set at intervals on along skid-road.
• noun In indigo-manuf., a series of vats which are conducted as a unit. They may be either steeping-vats or beating-vats. See vat.
• noun A set of stamps in a stamp-mill, comprising the number which fall in one mortar.
• noun In cœlenterates, a group of stinging-cells.
• noun A shield or shelter designed to hide the shooters in a grouse-drive; a butt used on English and Scotch moors. They are usually formed of blocks of peat or turf, cut with a spade and built up in the form of a wall, circular, horseshoe, or semicircular in shape.
• noun In harpsichord music, an effect produced by striking a chord in quick repetition for greater sonority. It was indicated by prefixing a vertical curve to the notes of the chord.
• noun The act of battering; attack or assault, with the view of beating down, as by a battering-ram or by ordnance.
• noun In law, the unlawful beating of another. The least degree of violence, or even the touching or spitting in the face of another, in anger or insolence, constitutes a battery. Every battery includes an assault, though an assault does not necessarily imply that it must be such as to threaten a battery. See assault.
• noun The instrument or agency employed in battering or attacking: as, a battery of guns; a battery of abuse. Specifically
• noun Milit.: A body of cannon for field operations, consisting generally of from 4 to 8 guns, with complement of wagons, artillerymen, etc. The armament of a ship of war: as, the Colorado's battery consists of 46 nine-inch guns.
• noun The personnel or complement of officers and men attached to a military battery.
• noun In fortification, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and others from the enemy's shot, with the guns employed; a fortified work mounting artillery.
• noun In base-ball, the pitcher and catcher together: as, the work of the battery was excellent.
• noun In frictional elect., a number of Leyden jars usually arranged with their inner coatings connected together, and their outer coatings also connected, so that they may all be charged and discharged at the same time.
• noun In voltaic elect., a voltaic cell, or more properly a number of voltaic cells (see cell) arranged together so as to give a powerful current of electricity.
• noun In optics, a series of lenses or of prisms, as in the spectroscope, combined in use.
• noun In machinery, an assemblage of similar constructions or parts: as, a battery of boilers; a battery of stamps in a stamping-mill; a battery of sugar-kettles.
• noun In the manufacture of nitric acid, a combination of large bottles and carboys serving as a condensing apparatus for the acid vapors.
• noun In hat-making, a large open boiler containing water to which some sulphuric acid has been added. It is surrounded by planks which slope toward the center, and is used in felting.
• noun Metals, or articles of metal, especially of brass or copper, wrought by hammering; hammered metals or utensils; especially, apparatus for preparing or serving meals; all metallic utensils of service for the kitchen. Compare batteria.
• noun An oblong box submerged to the rim in the water, used as a boat, and for concealment, by persons engaged in shooting wild fowl; a sink-boat.
• noun In coal-mining: A structure built of timber, to keep the coal in the breast or prevent it from sliding down the shute. A platform on which miners stand while working in thin and steeply pitching beds of coal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of battering or beating.
• noun (Law) The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him.
• noun Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense.
• noun Two or more pieces of artillery in the field.
• noun A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns.
• noun See Barbette.
• noun one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work.
• noun one that plays obliquely.
• noun a gun capable of firing a number of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load.
• noun a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery.
• noun projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing.
• noun a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy.
• noun withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.