battens (down)

verb

present tense third-person singular of batten (down)
as in locks

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for battens (down)
  1. chains
  2. latches
  3. bars
  4. shuts
  5. bolts
  6. fastens
  7. closes
Verb
  • Restaurant chains Chipotle and QDOBA pulled jalapeños last week.
    — Youri Benadjaoud, ABC News, 9 Aug. 2026
  • To address this, Ivo uses a multi-step pipeline that chains together more than 400 model calls for each contract review.
    — Charlie Fink, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026
Definition of chains
Verb
  • This bag from Away has a code lock that latches onto the zippers, preventing everyone but you and security from getting in.
    — Joel Balsam, Travel + Leisure, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Both the containers and lids are made from glass, and the lids are sealed with food-safe silicone that latches into place on both sides for an airtight design without leaks.
    — Caley Sturgill, Southern Living, 18 July 2026
Definition of latches
Verb
  • The draft also bars other federal departments, agencies, and officials from suspending a model’s development, deployment, or internal use.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 17 Oct. 2026
  • The National Flood Insurance Program, which covers the vast majority of flood insurance policies in the country, bars communities from allowing dry floodproofing of homes in flood zones.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of bars
Verb
  • Your middle schooler walks in, drops her backpack and shuts the bedroom door.
    — Ashley Lynch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Oct. 2026
  • There’s a brief pause, and then my phone goes haywire, inundated with Bluetooth signal spam — new Airpods connections, contact requests, an avalanche of popups that make my phone basically unusable until Hedge shuts it off.
    — Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of shuts
Verb
  • Then, the unit bolts to the van, becoming a secure load that happens to contain a full living suite.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 20 Aug. 2026
  • When a company bolts AI on without building it into the way the company works, the company can end up paying a great deal of money for a capability its competitors already share.
    — Mohamed Khater, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of bolts
Verb
  • Unique to the mid-top is a metal hook that fastens its collar strap, replacing the plastic hook traditionally seen on the Air Force 1 Mid.
    — Riley Jones, Footwear News, 16 Aug. 2026
  • My favorite detail is the red ribbon on Giovanna’s right shoulder, which fastens her sleeve to her dress and floats over the darkness.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026
Definition of fastens
Verb
  • One reason the early childhood brain development window closes without intervention is that our diagnostic tools were not built to look through the mother-child nexus.
    — Holly Baines, STAT, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The sentence closes a criminal case that grew from an endangerment arrest into a sweeping prosecution tied to multiple deaths and reshaped how Texas regulates unlicensed care homes and the agents who steer older adults into them.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of closes
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

battens
battens (down)
batter
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Battens (down).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/battens%20%28down%29. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of jilt

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All