battles

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of battle.

   Several fierce battles were fought along the river that summer.

   Her recovery involved many private battles no one ever saw.

   Note

   One spelling covers every kind of fight: armies meeting in the field, rap and breakdance face-offs, and the private struggles no one else sees. In older military writing the word could also name parts of an army itself, its divisions or its main body, so "the battles" might mean troops rather than clashes. Modern usage almost always means the encounters, and context settles the rest.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of battle.

   He battles a stubborn illness while still working full days.

   The crew battles on against the rising wind through the night.

   Note

   The present-tense form works in both patterns of the verb. Used transitively, it takes the opponent as a direct object: she battles the flu. Used intransitively, it needs a preposition or adverb such as on or against: the crew battles on. In the dialects of Northern England and Scotland the same form has nothing to do with fighting. There, someone battles land by making it fertile, or battles an animal by feeding it.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2