Definition of "battue" [bat•tue]

• The beating of woods and bushes to flush game. (noun)
• A hunt in which this is done. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "| On page 321, the word battue is not a typographical error."
• "| A battue is a hunt in which beaters force the game to |"
• "I have seen many old libraries, the doors of which remained unopened from week's end to week's end; where you inhaled the dust of paper-decay with every breath, and could not take up a book without sneezing; where old boxes, full of older literature, served as preserves for the bookworm, without even an autumn "battue" to thin the breed."