a. Obs.; also 7 bateable, 7–8 battable. [Shortened form of DEBATABLE; cf. BATE sb.1] Debatable, disputed; used esp. of the ‘debatable ground’ on the Scottish border.
1453. in Rymer Fœdera (1710), XI. 337. The Batable Landes in the Westmarch.
1531–2. Act 23 Hen. VIII., xvi. The batable grounde betwene England and Scotland.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 782. Called Batable ground, as one would say Litigious, because the English and the Scotish have litigiously contended about it.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Battable ground. [In mod. Dicts.]
