Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BATTER, n.¹ and v. Also ¶bather. [′bɑtər]

1. n.

(1) Something produced by beating — paste, glue, mixture for pancakes, soft mud;  a medicinal plaster (‡ne.Sc. Ags. 1975). In the Montrose district people used to get a batter from the chemist for a sprain, “sore back,” etc. (Ags.¹).Sc. 1951 R. J. Drummond Lest We Forget 38:
"Weel" he [doctor] said, "There's a batter to ye". Lth. 1915 J. Fergus The Sodger, etc. (1916) 18:
An' syne he tried a batter, a saw an' an emulsion.Gsw. 1860 J. Young Poorhouse Lays 36:
An' had tae ca' in doctors' aid, An' get yer sides wi' batters laid.  Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B. 50:
Batter. 1. Liquid mud. ‡2. Dry mud adhering to an article.

(2) Something pasted — hence covers of a book, the cover(s) of any type of reading material. Also fig.Ags.⁶ 1916; Edb.² 1933; Rxb.² 1916:
The batters of a book — i.e. the covers.Gsw. 1916 (per Mry.²):
Take care o' the batters o' that book.Gsw. 1972 Molly Weir Best Foot Forward (1974) 25:
She loved reading the papers 'from batter to batter', as she graphically put it, and not even my home coming interrupted this luxurious devouring of the world news. Kcd. 2005:
My mother used this - tae cover a book ye pit broon paper and mak sure the cellotape is on the paper - no the batters.

(3) Comb.: batter-horn, a horn for holding shoemakers' paste.Sc. 1794 "Tam Thrum" Look before ye Loup II. 6:
Ye look as if ye had swallow'd the batterhorn.Abd.(D) 1912 G. Greig Mains Wooin' 35:
The souter's . . . hid mair to dee wi' batter-horns than short-horns.Ags. 1896 Arbroath Guide (14 March) 3/6:
She mak's her tripe wi' glue, I'm tauld, an' I dinna want to be made a batter-horn o'.

2. v.

(1) To paste, to bill on a wall, etc.; to stiffen as with batter, to cake.Inv. 1741 A. Ross Freemasonry in Inv. (1877) 25:
By revising the Register of our Lodge since that time there have been abuses committed particularly by bathering [sic] the two leaves preceding this.  Edb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick 157:
I wad raither be cried in the kirk nor battered up on the registrar's buird.Gsw. 1992 Herald 26 Nov 20:
While Carruthers knack looks more for battering much-thumbed school jotters than binding eagerly read bestsellers, he was modest with it. He little advertised his specialist book services.Bwk. 1876 W. Brockie Confessional 205:
Tam the miller, wi' his coat aye bathert fou o' meal.Gall. 1705 Session Bk. Minnigaff (1939) 160:
The deponent observed the breast of the shirt in which the said Margaret road home battered hard as it had been with milk.   

ppl.adj.Sc. 1758 Nairne Peerage Evidence (1873) 66:
Which contract consists of four battered sheets the three joinings whereof are signed.

(2) From sense of “paste” — to mend, esp. to clout shoes, to patch.Ags. 1867 G. W. Donald Poems, Ballads and Songs 157:
What can I do but sit an' croon, An' batter up auld boots an' shoon. Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage (1892) 123:
An old light blue, side-tailed coat, the various outbrakings of which were bathered up with indifferent patches.

(3) In bagpipe playing: "to triplicate the notes by the motion of the fingers on the chanter", i.e. by a kind of drumming movement (Sc. a.1838 Jam. MSS. XI. 12).