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Batten vs Purlin - What's the difference?

batten | purlin |

As nouns the difference between batten and purlin

is that batten is a thin strip of wood used in construction to hold members of a structure together or to provide a fixing point while purlin is a longitudinal structural member two or more rafters of a roof.

As a verb batten

is to become better; improve in condition, especially by feeding or batten can be to furnish with battens.

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

    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

    purlin

    English

    Alternative forms

    * purline

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A longitudinal structural member two or more rafters of a roof.
  • Derived terms

    *common purlin *principal purlin *purlin plate *through purlin *butt purlin *clasped purlin *trenched through purlin *back through purlin *clasped through purlin *threaded butt purlin *tenoned butt purlin *staggared butt purlin

    Hyponyms

    *(longitudinal structural member of a roof) purlin plate, principal purlin, common purlin