Forms: 3–6 batayle, 4–6 bataile, -ayl, -ail, 4 bateil, -al, 4–5 bataill(e, batel(e, 5 batayll(e, -aill, -eyl, -eil, elle, -ill, (Sc.) battalȝe, 5–6 batel(e, battayle, battal(l, 5–7 batell, battell, 6 batyl, battaille, -ayl(l, (Sc.) battal, 6–7 battail(e, batle, 6–9 battel, 6– battle. [ME. batayle, -aile, -aille, a. OF. bataille (= It. battaglia, Sp. batalla):—vulgar L. battālia, corruption of late L. battuālia, neut. pl. of adj. *battuālis, f. late L. battu-ĕre to beat (perh. of Celtic origin). Battuālia is mentioned by the grammarian Adamantius or Martyrius (Keil, Gram. Lat., vii. 178) as a neut. pl. meaning ‘exercitationes militum vel gladiatorum’: Cassiodorius (Keil, ibid.), reproducing the passage, adds, ‘quæ vulgo battālia dicuntur.’ Like murālia, mirabilia, biblia, and many other neuter plurals, battālia came to be used as a feminine sing. in Romanic.]
I. A fight, fighting.
1. A hostile engagement or encounter between opposing forces on land or sea; a combat, a fight.
1297. R. Glouc., 369. Þere, as þe batayle was, an abbey he let rere … Þat ys ycluped in Engelond, abbey of þe batayle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 61. At mortal batailles [bataylis] hadde he been fiftene.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 64. A man that fled venquisshed from a bataille.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 4. The victory in many great batayles.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Chron. xxi. Cont., Of certaine batels which Dauid winneth.
1559. Bp. Scot, in Strype, Ann Ref., I. App. vii. 18. Our king … shall fyght our battailles for us.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 49. The sea-battell at Actium.
1642. Pr. Rupert, Declar., 3. In a battell, where two Armies fight.
1728. Newton, Chronol. Amended, Introd. 7. Before the Battel of Thermopylæ.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xxvi. Wide raged the battle on the plain.
b. With various qualifying attributes:
Close battle, a naval battle at ‘close quarters,’ in which the ships engage each other side by side. Pitched battle, a battle that has been planned, and of which the ground has been chosen beforehand, by both sides. Plain battle, ‘open field,’ fair fight. General’s battle, a battle in which the issue turns mainly upon the skill of the general, as contrasted with a soldier’s battle, in which the main element is the courage and energy of the soldier.
1529. Rastell, Pastyme (1811), 64. He slew, in playne battayl, Grosius, kynge of Wandalys.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 206. Haue I not in a pitched battell heard Loud larums?
1840. Sir W. Napier, Penins. War, VI. XXII. iv. 269. It [Passage of the Bidassoa] was a general’s not a soldier’s battle. Wellington had with overmastering combinations overwhelmed each point of attack.
1850. E. Warburton, Cresc. & Cross, I. 36. The signal for ‘close battle’ flew from his mast head.
1851. Creasy, Decis. Battles (1864), 187. To encounter Varus’s army in a pitched battle.
2. A fight between two persons, a single combat, a duel. Trial by battle: the legal decision of a dispute by the issue of a single combat.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3463. Bituix vn-born a batel blind.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, II. xxix. (1554), 65 b. Romains By singuler batayle had wonne the victory.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 26. Batayle, pugna, duellum.
1556. Chron. Grey Friars (1852), 12. A gret batle rose betwene Roberte Glocitre & Arthur Ormesby in Smythfelde.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 92. I say, and will in battaile proue … That [etc.].
1641. Termes de la Ley, 39. Battaile is an ancient triall in our Law, which the Defendant in appeale of murder, robbery, or felony, may chuse.
1641. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 356. The House afterwards Ordered a Bill to be brought in to take away Tryal by Battel.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Battle, The last trial by battel that was waged in the court of common pleas at Westminster … was in 1571.
b. An encounter between two animals, especially when set to fight to provide sport. Hence battle-cock, a fighting cock.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., viii. (1628), 284. Beasts of battaile, as is … the beare.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. iii. 36. His Cocks do winne the Battaile, still of mine.
1611. Markham, Countr. Content., I. xix. The breeding of these Cocks for the battail, is much differing from those of the dung-hill.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4005/4. There will be … a Cock Match … for 6 Guineas a Battel.
3. Battle royal, a fight in which several combatants engage (spec. applied to a cock-fight of this character); a general engagement; a ‘free’ fight; hence fig. a general squabble.
1672. J. Howard, All Mistaken, I. 10 (D.). Hist—now for a battail Royal.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., II. 248. Though Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, holy chiefs Have made a battel Royal of beliefs.
1804. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp., VI. 178. We may as well have a Battle Royal, Line-of-Battle Ships opposed to Ships of the Line, and Frigates to Frigates.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. ci. Cockerels crow across a ditch, till they get up a battle-royal.
4. (In certain phrases): The favorable issue of a combat, victory (cf. game, match, race). To give the battle: to grant victory. To have the battle: to be victorious. It is half the battle: (said of anything that contributes largely to success).
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 1003. Whether is the better?… He that has the bataile.
1611. Bible, Eccles. ix. 11. The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong.
1849. Marryat, Valerie, ii. Youth … is more than half the battle.
5. (Without article or pl.): Fighting, actual hostilities, conflict between enemies, war.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6970. Whenne þat þei to bataile ȝede.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 105. Durst nane of Walis in bataill ride.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, IV. 1216. Pollux … Brusshit into batell & moche bale wroght.
c. 1430. Life St. Kath. (1884), 61. The tyraunt Maxence went in batayle aȝenst the Emperour Constantyne.
1535. Coverdale, Josh. ii. 19. They wanne them all with battayll.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 27. His steede … did cruell battell breath.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, I. 238. Two ages he in battel honour gain’d.
1872. Ruskin, Fors Clav., xiv. II. 8. The best men still go out to battle.
† 6. A continued state of hostilities between two or more armed forces, a war. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Wisd. xiv. 22. In gret bataile [1617 war] or vnkunnyng liuende.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. IV. 153. Þe bataille þat heet bellum Sociale.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 262 b. Sylla … made civile battail with Marius.
1557. Paynell, Barclay’s Jugurth., B j. The Romayns had thre notable and famous batayls agaynste the Carthaginences.
7. fig. Strife, conflict, contest, struggle for victory.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 250. Batailis and stryvyngis in plee shulden be forsaken of Cristene men.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), IV. 1118. His gret bataile He had on crosse of tree.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lv. 21. Their mouthes are softer then butter and yet haue they batell in their mynde.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1711), 215. The Battel between the antient and modern Books.
1863. Stanley, Jew. Ch., xi. 246. Round this famous prayer was fought a battle of words.
1864. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), II. 197. It is curious to watch the battle between the two waters, quite unmixed, owing to their different specific gravity.
II. Battle array, an army or battalion in array.
8. A body or line of troops in battle array, whether composing an entire army, or one of its main divisions; = BATTALION. arch. (since c. 1700).
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 276. I se an oste … comand bi batailes ten.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 3562. Alle his burnes bliue in x batailes he sett.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VI. 2133. Gird furthe into grese with a gret batell.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxvii. 234. Kyng Edward in a felde fast by crescy hauyng iij batayls countred and met with philip of valoys hauyng with hym iiij bataylles.
1560. Whitehorne, Art Warre (1573), 21 b. A Macedonicall Fallange, was no other wise then is now a days a battaile of Swizzers.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. i. 129. What may the Kings whole Battaile reach vnto?
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 32. Whereof we frame our battels or battaillions.
1664. S. Clarke, Tamerlane, 8. He divided his Army into three main Battels.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. vi. 58. Their Phalanx is … a square Battail of Pike-men.
a. 1718. Rowe, Lucan (1807), 141. The joining battles shout.
1814. Scott, Ld. Isles, VI. x. In battles four beneath their eye, The forces of King Robert lie.
b. fig. A martial array, a line.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., civ. On his [the boar’s] bow-back he hath a battle set Of bristly pikes.
† 9. (More fully called ‘great’ or ‘main battle’): The main body of an army or naval force, as distinguished from the van and rear, or from the wings; = BATTALIA 2 c, BATTALION 1 b. Obs.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. xxiii. 71. After the fyrst bataylle that men calle the forwarde commeth the grete bataylle.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 299. They thus directed, we will follow In the maine Battell.
1655. Fuller, Ch.-Hist., VIII. § 36 IV. 171. He suffered Wyat his Van and main Battell … to march undisturbed … to Charing Chrosse.
1548. W. Patten, Exped. Scot., in Arb., Garner, III. 82. Our three Battles kept order in pace … The Foreward, foremost; the Battle, in the midst; and the Rereward, hindermost.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Invent. Shipping, 30. A Vanguard … of these hoyes … with a Battaile of 400 other warlike ships, and a Reare of thirty.
1655. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I., 112. So terrible a shock, as … disordered both Battail and Rere.
1868. Kirk, Chas. Bold, III. V. iii. 436. The artillery … was divided between the vanguard and the ‘battle,’ or main body.
† 10. Battle array; = BATTALIA 1. Obs.
1570–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), I. 200. Seeing the enemies readie ranged in battel.
1596. Sir F. Vere, Comm., 37. He should march on roundly to the enemy where they stood in battel.
III. Phrases (chiefly in sense 1).
11. In obvious phrases, as To have, keep, make, smite, strike, battle (all obs.); to bid (obs.), offer, refuse, accept, take (arch.) battle; to join battle; also, to do battle, to fight; to give battle, to attack, engage; to pitch a battle (cf. pitched battle in 1 b).
1297. R. Glouc., 514. Hii mette hom atte laste … at Lincolne … & smite there an bataile.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 471. Aȝeyn him ȝaf he batail grym.
1460. in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 185. Þe world biddiþ me bataile blijf.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 76. They had batayll togeder.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, I. iii. His enemies … did a great battle upon his men.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., lxiii. Pream., Divers … rered Warre, and made Bataill ayenst him.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge (1848), 181. William Conquerour Pight a stronge batell.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 336 a. The battail was kept in Cherronea.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 64. To make battel vpon the Sabboth day.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. iv. 66. Here pitch our Battaile, hence we will not budge. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., II. iv. 54. When Cressy Battell fatally was strucke.
1611. Bible, Gen. xiv. 8. They joyned battell with them, in the vale of Siddim.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. viii. 117. He did bid battel to the very fiercest of them.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 382. Before the Battel joins.
1723. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 125. Shall we give battle to the imperialists or not?
1847. Maxwell, Vict. Brit. Armies, 270. He advanced with sixty thousand men, determined to offer battle.
1851. Creasy, Decis. Battles (1864). 48. Miltiades immediately joined battle and gained the victory. Ibid., 149. He should abstain from giving or taking battle.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xxxi. (1878), 496. The Spaniard had refused battle.
1881. R. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque, 85. We must strive and do battle for the truth.
12. Line of battle: the position of troops drawn up in battle array in their usual order; the line or arrangement formed by ships of war in an engagement. Hence line-of-battle ship, a ship of sufficient size to take part in a main attack; formerly, one of 74 guns and upward.
1695. Addison, King, Misc. Wks. 1726, I. 11. Spain’s numerous Fleet … Cou’d scarce a longer Line of battel boast.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4700/1. Eighteen Men of War, all of the Line of Battel.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), A a. In the line, or order of battle, all the ships … are close-hauled.
1842. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., X. 516. The army … made up in the form of what is called ‘a line of battle.’
1863. Cornh. Mag., Feb. Life Man-of-War, 174. The typical vessel—the two-decker line-of-battle ship, say of eighty guns.
IV. Combinations.
13. General relations: a. instrumental with pa. pple., as battle-scarred, -slain, -spent (exhausted with fighting), -writhen (twisted in struggle). b. attrib. with sb., as battle-day, -din, -hymn, -line, -order, -painter, -picture, -place, -rank, -shout, -smoke, -song, and poetical combinations without limit, nearly all of the 19th century.
1701. Lond. Gaz., 3694/4. Mr. Alexander van Gaalon, the Battel-Painter.
1814. Byron, Lara, II. xi. The battle-day They could encounter as a veteran may.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, IV. xxx. To wreak thy wrongs in battle-line.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. viii. The steel Host, that yelled in fierce battle-shouts at Issus and Arbela.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 808. Battle-writhen arms and mighty hands.
1865. O. W. Holmes, To Gen. Grant. Our leaders battle-scarred.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. IV. 12. The battle-din was loud.
14. Special combinations: Battle array, formerly battle-ray, the order of troops arranged for battle; battle-cry, a war-cry, a slogan; battle-field, -ground, the field or ground on which a battle is fought; battle-piece, a painting of a battle, a poetical or rhetorical passage describing a battle; † battle-ram, a battering-ram; battle-stead (arch.), place of battle; battle-word, war-cry; † battle-wright, a warrior; battle-wise adv., in manner or order of battle.
1552. Huloet, *Battayle arraye, in fourme or order of battayle, turmatim.
c. 1600. Rob. Hood (Ritson), xii. 66. The King is into Finsbury field Marching in *battle-ray.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 234. Athenio … puts them under Banners into battelray.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lviii. 285. The two armies were drawn up in *battle-array.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xxxii. He shouted loud his *battle-cry, ‘Saint James for Argentine!’
1879. Pall Mall Budg., 12 Sept., 8. The noisy battle-cries that are put into their mouths.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. lxxxix. The *Battle-field, where Persia’s victim horde First bow’d.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxii. The French and English have … made Scotland the battle-field on which to fight out their own ancient quarrel.
1865. Mill, Exam. Hamilton, 154. The question of an external world is the great *battle-ground of metaphysics.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 379. Representations of the human passions; as we see even in *battel-pieces.
1866. H. Melville (title), Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. v. 27. Verses which echo the true ring of the battle-pieces of Homer.
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xxi. 22. To crie out Alarum, to set *batell-rammes agaynst the gates.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIV. 301. [Thai] levit in the *battell-stede Weill mony of thar gud men ded.
1559. Myrr. for Mag., Jack Cade, ix. 6. And *battayle wyse to cum to blackeheth playne.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 333. Wee did presently battell-wise cast our selues into a Wing.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xxvii. Sinks, Argentine, thy *battle-word.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7495. Yon es a stalworth *batail wright.
