batlet

Meaning

Noun

• A short bat for beating clothes when washing them.

Related

Similar words

• batling staff
• batting staff
• battledore
• clap staff
• fuller’s beetle
• laundry bat
• washing bat
• washing beetle
• washing paddle

Origin

• bat + -let. Probably a spurious word. Both this and batler are only known from the same Shakespeare locus; neither is it known that battler means a fuller’s beetle but him who beetles or “poss” the clothes. However for the meaning of by muscles battril, which could be a metathesis of batler, is known to have been used in the Lancashire dialect, such as by Tim Bobbin on multiple occasions.