Battler
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who wages battle against an enemy; a soldier; a general.
- 2 Alternative form of batteler. alt-of, alternative
- 3 someone who fights (or is fighting) wordnet
- 4 An itinerant worker or unemployed person. Australia, dated
"1900, Henry Lawson, The Shanty-Keeper′s Wife, Over the Sliprails, Gutenberg eBook # 1313, “But look here!” interrupted the Pilgrim, desperately, “we can′t afford to wait! We′re only ‘battlers’, me and my mate, pickin′ up crumbs by the wayside. We′ve got to catch the——”"
- 5 One who works hard in the face of adversity.
"In an earlier era Australia was a nation of battlers, of working people who were hardened by the rigours of economic depression and war, and, if not proud of their penury, certainly not ashamed of it. The Aussie battler became an icon of Australian political folklore, and the image persists into the present even though, as a result of sustained economic growth for the last five decades, the number of people who truly struggle has shrunk to a small proportion of the population. For every genuine battler there are three or four who imagine they fit the description. That is why our political leaders keep alive and exploit the myth of the Aussie battler."
Example
More examples"Four years later it was stormed by the Aragonese, King Alfonso the Battler being the third to enter the fortress."
Etymology
From Middle English batailloure, from Old French batailleor; equivalent to battle + -er.
See batteler.
Related phrases
More for "battler"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.