Battery: Power Cell, Cricket Pair, and a Criminal Charge
A battery stores electricity, but the same word also means a set of similar things grouped together, and in law the act of striking someone.
Battery looks like several unrelated words but is one. Its old sense is a group of things acting together — guns, hens, tests. Benjamin Franklin borrowed that sense for a row of linked jars storing charge, and the electrical meaning has ruled ever since.
- A device storing electrical charge. *The battery is flat.*
- A group of similar units. *A battery of tests.*
- Artillery guns as a unit. *The battery opened fire.*
- Unlawful physical contact (law). *Charged with assault and battery.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | battery | A car battery. |
| Plural | batteries | Batteries not included. |
| Adjective | battery-powered | A battery-powered drill. |
| Adjective | battery-operated | Battery-operated lights. |
| Compound | battery farming | Battery farming was banned. |
How it is used in a sentence
- My phone battery lasts about a day.The dominant modern sense.
- The patient underwent a battery of tests.A whole set, done together.
- Battery cages for hens were phased out in the EU.Rows of identical cages — the group sense again.
Assault and battery
- Assault — traditionally the threat that makes someone fear being struck
- Battery — the actual unlawful contact
- The two are charged together so often that many people treat them as one offence
- Modern statutes in several countries have merged or renamed them
From French *batterie*, from *battre*, to beat. Beating is the original idea: the artillery sense is a set of guns that beat a target, and the legal sense is a beating in the plainest way.
Is a battery flat or dead?
British speakers say flat, Americans say dead. Both are understood everywhere.
Why is a cricket bowler and wicketkeeper not a battery?
That pairing belongs to baseball, where the pitcher and catcher together are called the battery — another survival of the group sense.