battledore noun. ['bat(ǝ)ldɔ:] LME.
[Perh. from Provençal batedor beater, from batre to beat (see BATTER verb¹): cf. BATTLE verb³.]
1. A wooden usu. paddle-shaped instrument used in washing for beating, stirring, or smoothing clothes; a similarly-shaped utensil for inserting objects into an oven, kiln, etc. Now chiefly Hist. LME.

2. More fully battledore book. A hornbook, an ABC, a child's primer. (So called from its usual shape.) M17-L19.

3. A small racket used with a shuttlecock. Also (more fully battledore and shuttlecock) the game played with these, a forerunner of badminton. L17.
Phrases: not know a B from a battledore arch. be completely illiterate or ignorant.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲