Battery - Definition and Overview

The word battery has a number of senses, most of which are discussed in Wikipedia articles cited below.

(The origin of "battery" lies in words that mean "to beat", and a cluster of senses related directly to that. Another cluster of senses began as metaphors to the assembly of multiple artillery pieces into "batteries" that jointly beat a target, and thus include various other entities working in concert. That "beat goes on", so to speak, with single electrical cells being called batteries, just as assemblies of electrical cells working in concert are, and with a product that wants to evoke the recharging of batteries making "Battery" its trademark.)

For the senses of:

• combative behavior, see Battery (crime) or Battery (tort)
• the device for storing electrical energy, see Battery (electricity).
• the former fortification on Manhattan Island, see The Battery.
• the area around Battery Park in Manhattan, see Battery Park City.
• military units, usually centering on artillery troops operating an artillery battery
• the interaction in baseball between pitcher and catcher, see list of baseball jargon.
• the beverage trademarked "Battery", see Energy drink.
• a farming practice where hens are confined in small cages to lay eggs, see battery farming.
• an alternative naming for the drumline in a marching band.