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Baton vs Batten - What's the difference?

baton | batten |

As nouns the difference between baton and batten

is that baton is a staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal while batten is a thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point.

As verbs the difference between baton and batten

is that baton is to strike with a baton while batten is to become better; improve in condition, especially by feeding.

baton

English

(wikipedia baton)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal
  • (music) The stick of a conductor in musical performances.
  • (sports) An object transferred by runners in a relay race.
  • (lb) A short stout club used primarily by policemen; a truncheon (UK).
  • (heraldiccharge) An abatement in coats of arms to denote illegitimacy. (Also spelled batune, baston).
  • (heraldiccharge) A riband with the ends cut off, resembling a baton, as shown on a coat of arms.

    • Derived terms

    * batonic

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To strike with a baton.

    • References

    * * The Observer's Book of Heraldry , by Charles Mackinnon of Dunakin, p. 58.

    External links

    * ----

    batten

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) *.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To become better; improve in condition, especially by feeding.
  • To feed (on); to revel (in).
  • * 1890 , (Oscar Wilde), The Picture of Dorian Gray , ch. XIV:
    • The brain had its own food on which it battened , and the imagination, made grotesque by terror, twisted and distorted as a living thing by pain, danced like some foul puppet on a stand and grinned through moving masks.
  • To thrive by feeding; grow fat; feed oneself gluttonously.
  • * Garth
    • The pampered monarch lay battening in ease.
  • * Emerson
    • Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history
  • To thrive, prosper, or live in luxury, especially at the expense of others; fare sumptuously.
    • ''Robber barons who battened on the poor
  • To gratify a morbid appetite or craving; gloat.
  • To improve by feeding; fatten; make fat or cause to thrive due to plenteous feeding.
  • * Milton
    • battening our flocks
  • To fertilize or enrich, as land.
    • Derived terms
    * battner
    Related terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m),

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point.
  • (nautical) A long strip of wood, metal, fibreglass etc used for various purposes aboard ship, especially one inserted in a pocket sewn on the sail in order to keep the sail flat.
  • In stagecraft, a long pipe, usually metal, affixed to the ceiling or fly system in a theater.
  • The movable bar of a loom, which strikes home or closes the threads of a woof.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To furnish with battens.
  • (nautical) To fasten or secure a hatch etc using battens.
    • Derived terms
    * batten down * batten down the hatches

    References

    * FM 55-501 Marine Crewman’s Handbook