batter, v. = "to run riot, as on a spree"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Mostly Anglo-Hibernian. Oddly not in OED.

  1863 _Hooley's Opera House Songster_ (N.Y.: Dick & FitzGerald) 62: It's now, that I'm single agin,/ I'll spind my time rakin' and batterin'.

  JL


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