battledore
Noun

battledore (plural battledores)

  1. A game played with a shuttlecock and rackets (properly battledore and shuttlecock); a forerunner of badminton.
  2. The racket used in this game.
  3. (obsolete) A child's hornbook for learning the alphabet.
    • 1802, William Hutton, The History of the Roman Wall, preface
      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.
  4. (historical) A bat or beetle used in washing clothes.
    • 1563, John Foxe, The Book of Martyrs, ch. 21
      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.
Translations
  • German: Federballschläger



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