verb

• (transitive, obsolete)
  "VVe drove a field, and both together heard VVhat time the Gray-fly vvinds her ſultry horn, Batt'ning our flocks vvith the freſh devvs of night, […]"
• (transitive, obsolete)
  "[O]thers [i.e., rivers] ariſing and running thorovv this Shire, doe ſo batten the ground, that the Medovves euen in the midſt of VVinter grovv greene; […]"
• (intransitive)
  "No, let him batten; when his tongue Once goes, a cat is not worse strung."
• (intransitive)

adj

• (obsolete) Synonym of battle (“of grass or pasture: nutritious to cattle or sheep; of land (originally pastureland) or soil: fertile, fruitful”).
  "The Soile for the moſt part is lifted vp into many hilles, parted aſunder vvith narrovv and ſhort vallies, and a ſhallovv earth doth couer their out-ſide, vvhich by a Sea-vveede called Orevvood, and a certaine kinde of fruitfull Sea-ſand, they make ſo ranke and batten, as is vncredible."

noun

• (carpentry, construction) A plank or strip of wood, or several of such strips arranged side by side, used in construction to hold members of a structure together, to provide a fixing point, to strengthen, or to prevent warping.
• (specifically)
• (specifically)
  "The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened the ship."
• (specifically)

verb

• (chiefly nautical) Chiefly followed by down: to fasten or secure (a hatch, opening, etc.) using battens (noun sense 2.2).
  "Nail down the lid; caulk the seams; pay over the same with pitch; batten them down tight, and hang it with the snap-spring over the ship's stern. Were ever such things done before with a coffin?"