Battledore

Quick meaning: Battledore is a noun meaning A game played with a shuttlecock and rackets (properly battledore and shuttlecock); a forerunner of badminton.

Meaning

A game played with a shuttlecock and rackets (properly battledore and shuttlecock); a forerunner of badminton.

More Meanings

1. The racket used in this game.
2. (obsolete) A child's hornbook for learning the alphabet.
3. (historical) A wooden paddle-shaped bat or beetle used to wash clothes by beating, stirring, or smoothing them.

Example Sentences

The laundry process of the time [1665] consisted of boiling textiles with lye or soap and then beating them with a battledore, a rustic version of a cricket bat.

You will also pardon the errors of the Work, for you know I was not bred to letters; but, that the battledore, at an age not exceeding six, was the last book I used at school.

There were nights when it seemed to me that our position could be stormed by twenty Boy Scouts armed with airguns, or twenty Girl Guides armed with battledores, for that matter.

There is a large basin near the fountain, where numbers of women may be seen every day, kneeling at the edge of the water, and beating the clothes with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battledores.

Word Forms

• battledores
• battledoor

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include battledoor, shuttlecock, badminton, badmitten, badders, birdie.

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