Forms: 6 bataillon, 6–7 battailon, -aillion, 7 -allion, -alian 7– battalion. [a. F. battaillon, 16th c. ad. It. battaglione, augm. or dim. of battaglia BATTLE; cf. Sp. batallon ‘a pettie battell or army.’ (Cf. BATTALIA.)]
1. gen. A large body of men in battle array; one of the large divisions of an army.
1589. Ive, Du Bellay’s Instr. Warres, 73. I will goe range the ten bands in one whole Batailon.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 33. Deuiding them [Companies] into so many parts or battaillions.
1652. C. Stapylton, Herodian, XVII. 146. His Army … he divideth into three Battalians.
1658. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd., III. iii. § 31 (1670), 373. The distribution of the Troops, into Battalions, Regiments, Ensigns.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. vi. (1715), 61. The Roman Battalions … were still call’d Legiones.
1862. T. Hughes, Struggle Kansas, 363. ‘Providence is on the side of the strongest battalions’ is a saying … much believed in here.
1868. Kirk, Chas. Bold, III. V. ii. 377. The army was broken up into eight battalions and a reserve.
† b. The main body of an army. (= BATTLE 9.)
[1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., I. 403. The maine Battalion was both rang’d and led By that slye Prince.]
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, I. 14. Compast by the Enemy … who staid it not, but gallopt home to the Batallion.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Battalion, the main battle.
2. spec. A body of infantry (or engineers) composed of several companies, and forming part of a regiment. (The number of battalions in a regiment varies greatly in different countries, and even in the British Army at the present time [c. 1887].)
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4467/4. Each regiment is to consist of two Battalions, and each Battalion of 1000 Men.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VI. 81. An army composed of divisions, brigades, regiments, and battalions.
1877. Field Exerc. Infantry, 148. A Battalion in line may advance or retire in fours from the right or left of Companies.
3. transf. and fig. (from 1.)
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xii. (1632), 267. [The Tunnyfish] alwales frame their shole of a cubike figure … a solide, close and welranged battailon.
