BATTERY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

See encyclopedia: Intentional Torts -- Persons -- Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Torts →

BATTERYAuthored

The Law Mind • 1120 words

Definition

Battery is the intentional, unlawful application of force to the person of another without that person's consent. It is the completed act that assault anticipates: where assault is the threat or attempt, battery is the contact itself.

Battery exists in two distinct legal contexts:

1. Criminal battery. A crime consisting of the willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person. Severity ranges from simple battery (any unlawful touching) to aggravated battery (battery causing serious bodily injury, involving a deadly weapon, or targeting a protected class of victim).

2. Civil battery (tort). An intentional tort consisting of harmful or offensive contact with the person of another, made without consent. The contact need not cause physical injury — offensiveness to a reasonable person suffices. Unlike the criminal form, civil battery focuses on the plaintiff's right to bodily autonomy and the defendant's intent to make contact, not necessarily intent to harm.

The two forms share a common historical root but diverge in elements, intent requirements, and remedies. A single act can constitute both criminal battery and tortious battery simultaneously.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrochemical cells; also, in military usage, a emplacement of artillery or a unit of artillery soldiers.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of battering or beating; also, a place where cannon or mortars are mounted, and a company of artillery including gunners, guns, and equipment.

The gap between common and legal meaning is significant and runs in both directions. Most modern readers encountering "battery" think first of a power source, not a physical act. Conversely, readers of historical legal sources who recognize the word's violent connotation may still underestimate how little physical force is legally required — the slightest intentional touching in anger has long been held sufficient.

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Common Confusion

Battery vs. assault. In ordinary speech, "assault and battery" is treated as a single phrase, and "assault" is often used alone to mean physical attack. In law, they are distinct: assault is the apprehension of imminent harmful contact; battery is the contact itself. Some modern criminal codes have merged the two offenses under the label "assault," which creates a direct conflict with classical common-law usage and with older sources that always distinguish them. A researcher using historical materials must be alert to which meaning a given source applies.

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Core Elements

Criminal battery (common law and most jurisdictions):
— Intentional act by the defendant
— Application of force to the person of another (however slight)
— Unlawfulness (absence of consent, privilege, or justification)

Civil battery (tort):
— Intent to make contact (not necessarily intent to harm)
— Harmful or offensive contact
— With the plaintiff's person or something closely connected to it
— Without consent

The intent requirement distinguishes battery from negligent contact. A defendant need not intend harm, only the contact. This distinction matters most in tort: a surgeon who performs an operation beyond the scope of patient consent may commit battery without any malicious intent.

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Why It Matters in Research

The criminal-tort divide is the most important navigational issue. Historical dictionaries almost uniformly define battery in its criminal sense — unlawful beating — without separately articulating the tort doctrine. Researchers working in tort law must recognize that the civil cause of action carries distinct intent and damages analysis that the criminal definition does not capture.

The "slightest touching" rule appears consistently across historical sources and represents genuine law, not rhetorical flourish. Burrill and Bouvier both record it. This matters when tracing the outer boundary of the tort in early cases, where even offensive contact with clothing or an object held by the plaintiff was actionable.

Modern criminal code consolidation is a trap. Many states have replaced separate assault and battery offenses with a unified "assault" statute covering both apprehension and contact. When researching a jurisdiction's current law, do not assume the common-law distinction survives. When researching historical law in the same jurisdiction, do not assume the modern consolidated label applies retroactively.

The two encyclopedia entries serve different research needs. criminal_38 covers grading, statutory variations, and the elements of aggravated battery across jurisdictions. torts_89 covers the intent standard (including the transferred intent doctrine), the harmful/offensive contact distinction, and the consent defense as developed in civil litigation. Neither substitutes for the other.

Rapalje & Lawrence's entry in the source material above is misindexed and covers villenage tenure, not battery. Researchers should treat that entry as a cataloging error and rely on the remaining five sources.

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Historical Dictionary Support

The historical sources converge on a core definition: battery is any unlawful touching of another person by the aggressor or by any substance put in motion by the aggressor, committed willfully or through want of due care. Burrill's formulation is the most complete, explicitly extending liability to objects set in motion by the defendant — a doctrinal point that anticipates modern indirect-contact cases.

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier agree that no minimum level of force is required; the willfulness of the act, not its severity, is the operative element. Bouvier's citation to the Georgia case for the "slightest touching in anger" formulation has genuine doctrinal weight and appears in multiple editions.

Where the historical sources fall short: none of them adequately distinguishes the tort from the crime, and none addresses the intent standard with the precision that twentieth-century tort doctrine would later require. The historical treatment of consent as a defense is underdeveloped. Researchers working on medical battery, sports contact, or implied-consent doctrine will need to move beyond these sources into treatise and case law from the late nineteenth century onward.

Anderson's entry in the source material covers bastardy, not battery — another cataloging artifact to note.

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Jurisdictional Note

A significant number of U.S. states have abolished battery as a separate criminal offense and folded the conduct into a consolidated assault statute. England and Wales similarly use "assault" as the umbrella term in modern statutory practice. Researchers should verify whether a given jurisdiction still maintains the common-law distinction before applying historical doctrine to current problems.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

criminal_38: Battery — Elements and Degrees (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
torts_89: Intentional Torts — Persons — Battery (Harmful or Offensive Contact) (The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia)

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BATTERYmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Any unlawful beating, or other wrongful physical violence or con- straint, inflicted on a human being without his consent. 2 Bish. Crim. Law, § 71. A battery is a willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another. Pen. Code Cal. § 242; Pen. Code Dak. § 306. The actual offer to use force to the injury of an other person is assault; the use of it is battery; hence the two terms are commonly combined in the term "assault and battery."

BATTERYmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Any unlawful beating, or other wrongful physical violence or con- straint, inflicted on a human being without his consent. 2 Bish. Cr. L. § 71; Clark, Cr. L. 190; 17 Ala. 540; 9 N. Η. 491. It is an unlawful touching the person of another by the aggressor himself, or any other substance put in motion by him; 43 Ind. 153. The slightest touching of another in anger is a battery; 60 Ga. 511. It must be either wilfully committed, or proceed from want of due care; Stra. 596; Plowd. 19; 3 Wend. 391. Hence an injury, be it ever so small, done to the person of another in an angry, spiteful, rude, or in- solent manner, 9 Pick. 1, as by spitting in his face, 6 Mod. 172, or on his body, 1 Swint. 597, or any way touching him in anger, 1 Russell, Cr. 751; 17 Тех. 515; or throwing water on him, 3 N. & P. 564, or violently jostling him, see 4 H. & N. 481, or where one riding a bicycle recklessly runs against a person standing with his back partially towards him, when by the exercise of slight care it could be avoided; 117 Ind. 450, is a battery in the eye of the law; 1 Hawk. Pl. Cr. 263. See 1 Selwyn, N. P. 33. And any- thing attached to the person partakes of its inviolability: if, therefore, A strikes a cane in the hands of B, it is a battery; 1 Dall. 114; 1 Pa. 380; 1 Hill, S. C. 46; 4 Denio 453; 4 Wash. C. C. 534; 1 Baldw. 600. Whether striking a horse is striking the driver, see 43 Ind. 146. A battery may be justified on various ac counts. As a salutary mode of correction. A parent may correct his child (though if done to excess, it is battery: 121 Mass. 66; 54 Ga. 281; 62 III. 354); a guardian his ward; 43 Tex. 167; a master his apprentice; 24 Edw. IV.; 4 Gray 36: 2 Dev. & B. 865; а teacher his scholar, within reason; 45 Iowa 248; 68 N. C. 322; 40 Barb. 541; 87 Ν. Ε. Rep. (Ind.) 558; and a superior officer, one under his command; Keilw. 136; Buller, N. P. 19; Bee, Adm. 161; 1 Bay 3; 14 Johns. 119; 15 Mass. 365. And see Cowp. 178; 15 Mass. 347; 3 C. & Κ. 142; but a master, ordinarily, not his servant; 1 Ashm. 267; 6 Tex App. 133; and the mate of a steamboat has no legal right to enforce his orders by beating one of the crew; 35 Fed. Rep. 152. See ASSAULT; BEAT. As a means of preserving the peace, in the exercise of an office, under process of court, and in aid of an authority at law. See

BATTERYmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(118) distinguished from "frank tenants" (q. v.) who the child, and such third persons afterwere freeholders; (2) tenants who rendered to their lords services in villenage.-Cowell.

BATTERYn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act of battering or beating. The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him. Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense. Two or more pieces of artillery in the field. A company or division of artillery, including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six guns. Barbette battery. See Barbette.  -- Battery d'enfilade, or Enfilading battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops or part of a work.  -- Battery en écharpe, one that plays obliquely.  -- Battery gun, a gun capable of firing a number, of shots simultaneously or successively without stopping to load.  -- Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, etc., of the battery.  -- In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing.  -- Masked battery, a battery artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy.  -- Out of battery, or From battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading. A number of coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously. An apparatus for generating voltaic electricity. A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts; as, a battery of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc. A series of stamps operated by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious metals. Knight. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore play up and down. The pitcher and catcher together.

batterynoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. | A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. | Such a device that has multiple cells. | The energy stored in such a device. | The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence. | A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns. | A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns. | Such a group of a certain size (number of guns and artillerists), within a schema of military unit organization. | An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed. | An array of similar things. | A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs. | The catcher and the pitcher together | Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal | A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance. | The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired. | Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

Batteryname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A park in Manhattan, New York City.

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