batter

Batter, as Webster 1913 notes, is an architectural term for walls that rise not vertically but with a (usually slight) incline inward. It is not associated with any one style or historical period of building, but was common enough in ancient Egyptian architecture, in fortress architecture, and more recently, Art Deco architecture. It describes only the incline, not the physical condition of the wall.

In the URLs below you will find Egyptian examples from the Old Kingdom (mastaba tombs from Giza) and New Kingdom (Karnak pylon gates). I found a few typically astonishing Egyptian revival structures, a couple of fortresses in the USA, an early 20th-century bungalow with characteristic battered posts holding up the porch, and a couple of Art Deco buildings with battered walls.

URLs.
http://digilander.libero.it/mickymaus/Sfondi/Architettura/02-08-01/outside%20the%20Karnak%20Temple%20(Luxor,%20Egypt).jpg (Wall at Karnak in Egypt with a slight batter.)
http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1803/Stille/Stille01.jpg (at Luxor, Egypt.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/images/pyramid_gallery_mastaba.jpg (Mastaba tomb from Giza, Egypt.)
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/pharaohs_exhib/amarna/learn_explore/arch_virt.html (Another mastaba tomb, Giza.)
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/19th/egyptian_richmond.jpg (Egyptian revival building at Virginia Commonwealth University!)
http://www.vintagedesigns.com/architecture/egypt/sem/ (See the wiggy battered door of the Egyptian revival tank house!)
http://www.nps.gov/fomc/ (Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland USA.)
http://www.nps.gov/casa/ (Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida, USA.)
http://www.myplanet.net/csharp/BUNGALOW.jpg (Bungalow with battered porch supports.)
http://www.joslyn.org/geninfo/building.htm (Art Deco Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.)
http://www.members.tripod.com/deconut/id58.htm (Art Deco Union Station, Joslyn Art Museum, etc., Omaha.)

Each batter is awarded up to four balls or three strikes. If the batter receives four pitches outside his strikezone, he is then granted a walk, and awarded first base. If the batter swings three times and misses every time, or the umpire calls three pitches as strikes, the batter is said to have struck out, and must leave the field of play, until the next time he is to bat.

Bat"ter (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Battered (); p. pr. & vb. n. Battering.] [OE. bateren, OF. batre, F. battre, fr. LL. battere, for L. batuere to strike, beat; of unknown origin. Cf. Abate, Bate to abate.]

1.

To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish; as, to batter a wall or rampart.

2.

To wear or impair as if by beating or by hard usage.

Pope.

3. Metallurgy

To flatten (metal) by hammering, so as to compress it inwardly and spread it outwardly.

© Webster 1913.

Bat"ter, n. [OE. batere, batire; cf. OF. bateure, bature, a beating. See Batter, v. t.]

1.

A semi-liquid mixture of several ingredients, as, flour, eggs, milk, etc. , beaten together and used in cookery.

King.

2.

Paste of clay or loam.

Holland.

3. Printing

A bruise on the face of a plate or of type in the form.

© Webster 1913.

Bat"ter, n.

A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope.

Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope of a wall is regulated in building.

© Webster 1913.

Bat"ter, v. i. Arch.

To slope gently backward.

© Webster 1913.

Bat"ter, n.

One who wields a bat; a batsman.

© Webster 1913.