different between assault vs battery

English

Etymology

From Middle English assaut, from Old French noun assaut, from the verb asaillir, from Latin assili?, from ad (“towards”) + sali? (“to jump”). See also assail. Spelling Latinized around 1530 to add an l.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s??lt/
• (regional, California) IPA^(key): /??s?lt/

Noun

assault (countable and uncountable, plural assaults)

1. A violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     The Spanish general prepared to renew the assault.

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book 5

     Unshaken bears the assault / Of their most dreaded foe, the strong southwest.

2. A violent onset or attack with moral weapons, for example words, arguments, appeals, and the like

3. (criminal law) An attempt to commit battery: a violent attempt, or willful effort with force or violence, to do hurt to another, but without necessarily touching his person, as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner, or by striking at him and missing him.
4. (singular only, law) The crime whose action is such an attempt.
5. (tort law) An act that causes someone to apprehend imminent bodily harm.
6. (singular only, law) The tort whose action is such an act.
7. (fencing) A non-competitive combat between two fencers.

Synonyms

• onfall, onrush

Coordinate terms

• battery

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

assault (third-person singular simple present assaults, present participle assaulting, simple past and past participle assaulted)

1. (transitive) To attack, physically or figuratively; to assail.

   Tom was accused of assaulting another man outside a nightclub.

   Loud music assaulted our ears as we entered the building.

2. (transitive) To threaten or harass. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Middle French

Noun

assault m (plural assauls)

1. (chiefly military) assault; attack

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“battre”), from Latin battu? (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæt??i/, /?bæt?i/
• Hyphenation: bat?te?ry

Noun

battery (countable and uncountable, plural batteries)

1. (countable, electronics) A device used to power electric devices, consisting of a set of electrically connected electrochemical or, archaically, electrostatic cells. A single such cell when used by itself.
   • 1749 Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson

     Upon this We made what we call’d an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm’d with thin leaden Plates, pasted on each Side...

     A Turky is to be killed for our Dinners by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a Fire kindled by the Electrified Bottle; when the Healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns from the Electrical Battery.
2. (law) The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which includes the threat of impending violence.
   • 2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, section 7.2.2-3:

     A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. [...] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault [...] although this was a battery.

3. (countable) A coordinated group of artillery weapons.
4. (historical, archaic) An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
5. An array of similar things.

   Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.

6. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
7. (baseball) The catcher and the pitcher together
8. (chess) Two or more major pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal
9. (music) A marching percussion ensemble; a drumline.
10. The state of a firearm when it is possible to be fired.
11. (archaic) Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• accumulator
• assault