To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten.
- To become fat.
- To thrive and prosper, especially at another's expense: "[She] battens like a leech on the lives of famous people, . . . a professional retailer of falsehoods” ( George F. Will).
- To fatten; overfeed.
- Nautical One of several flexible strips of wood or plastic placed in pockets at the outer edge of a sail to keep it flat.
- Nautical A narrow strip of wood used to fasten down the edges of the material that covers hatches in foul weather.
- Chiefly British A narrow strip of wood used especially for flooring.
- Nautical To furnish, fasten, or secure with battens: battened down the hatch during the storm.
- batten down the hatches To prepare for an imminent disaster or emergency.