1. Drawn up in battle array, marshalled for fight.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (1860), 32. He comaunded the oost embatailed not forto breke.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 213. On their embattled ranks the waves return.
1677. Hobbes, Homer’s Iliad, 137. See your men i’ th’ morn imbattled.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 536. The chiefs … may range Together, the imbattled multitude.
1816. Wordsw., Sonn. to Liberty, xlii. Bondage threatened by the embattled East.
1866. Felton, Anc. & Mod. Gr., I. vii. 108. The din of embattled squadrons.
b. transf. and fig.
1745. T. Warton, Pleas. Melanch., 294. At her presence mild the embattled clouds Disperse in air.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. I. iv. § 53. 297. The embattled legions of ignorance.
2. Filled or covered with troops in battle array. Also fig.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 56. The Element euery night was embattailed with Armed men.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 369. Castor glorious on th’ embattled plain.
1842. Orderson, Creoleana, xviii. 217. He was … anxious to be at the first brunt of the embattled field.
3. Fortified, made strong or secure against attack. Cf. EMBATTLED ppl. a.2
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 263. That no subject can build a castle, or house of strength imbatteled … without the licence of the king.
1834. Bowring, Minor Morals, Perseverance, 146. Every feudal chief was obliged to shut himself up in high and embattled towers.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, I. iii. 28. Each manor was embattled for defence.
