battel

English

Etymology 1

Noun

battel (plural battels)

1. Obsolete form of battle.
2. (UK, law, obsolete) A single combat.

   trial by battel; wager of battel

Etymology 2

Adjective

battel (comparative more battel, superlative most battel)

1. (obsolete) fertile; fruitful; productive
   • (Can we date this quote by Fairfax and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     a battel soil for grain, for pasture good

Verb

1. (transitive) To make fertile.
   • (Can we date this quote by Ray and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     to battel barren land

2. (transitive, intransitive, British, Oxford University) To supply with provisions from the buttery.
   • 1607, W. S. [attributed to Thomas Middleton or William Shakespeare (doubtful)], The Pvritaine. Or The VViddovv of Watling-streete. […], imprinted at London: By G[eorge] Eld, →OCLC, Act I:

     Troth, and for mine owne part, I am a poore Gentleman, & a Scholler, I haue beene matriculated in the Vniuerſitie, wore out ſixe Gownes there, ſeene ſome fooles, and ſome Schollers, ſome of the Citty, and ſome of the Countrie, kept order, went bare-headed ouer the Quadrangle, eate my Commons with a good ſtomacke, and Battled with Diſcretion; at laſt, hauing done many ſlights and trickes to maintaine my witte in vſe (as my braine would neuer endure mee to bee idle,) I was expeld the Vniuerſitie, onely for ſtealing a Cheeſe out of Ieſus Colledge.

Noun

battel (countable and uncountable, plural battels)

1. (UK, Oxford University, chiefly in the plural) Fees charged by a college for accommodation and living expenses.
2. (UK, Oxford University, chiefly in the plural, obsolete) Provisions ordered from the buttery.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “battel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Battle, batlet, battle, tablet