battledore and shuttlecock

English

Noun

battledore and shuttlecock (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) An early version of the game badminton.
    • 1847 — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ch XV, p242
      But I stayed out a few minutes longer with Adele and Pilot—ran a race with her, and played a game of battledore and shuttlecock.
    • 1953 — Bertrand Russell, 'Satan in the Suburbs' or ' Horrors Manufactured Here' . (A short story published in 'Satan in the Suburbs and other stories' , Penguin Books (1953), at p.19.)
      At night before I slept alternate horrors of ruin buffeted me this way and that in an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock.

Translations
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.