battue

American  

[ba-too, -tyoo, ba-ty] / bæˈtu, -ˈtyu, baˈtü /

noun

Chiefly British.

plural

battues

1. Hunting.

   1. the beating or driving of game from cover toward a stationary hunter.

   2. a hunt or hunting party using this method of securing game.

2. undiscriminating slaughter of defenseless or unresisting crowds.

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battue British  

/ baty, -ˈtjuː, bæˈtuː /

noun

1. the beating of woodland or cover to force game to flee in the direction of hunters

2. 1. an organized shooting party using this method

   2. the game disturbed or shot by this method

3. indiscriminate slaughter, as of a defenceless crowd

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Etymology

Origin of battue

1810–20; < French, noun use of feminine of battu, past participle of battre < Latin battuere to beat. See battuta, battle ¹

Example Sentences

Battue shooting, I grant, is tame work; but partridge shooting, after the middle of October, is infinitely wilder, requiring more exertion and more toil than quail shooting.

From Warwick Woodlands Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago by Herbert, Henry William

Battue, bat-tōō′, n. a method of hunting in which the woods are beaten and the game driven from cover into some place for the convenience of the shooters: any indiscriminate slaughter.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various