battledore and shuttlecock

English

Noun

battledore and shuttlecock (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) An early version of the game badminton.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ch XV, p242:
      But I stayed out a few minutes longer with Adele and Pilot—ran a race with her, and played a game of battledore and shuttlecock.
    • 1953 — Bertrand Russell, 'Satan in the Suburbs' or ' Horrors Manufactured Here' . (A short story published in 'Satan in the Suburbs and other stories' , Penguin Books (1953), at p.19.)
      At night before I slept alternate horrors of ruin buffeted me this way and that in an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock.

Translations
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