Meaning

noun stuffing made of rolls or sheets of cotton wool or synthetic fiber

noun a strip fixed to something to hold it firm

verb furnish with battens

originThe verb is derived from Middle English *battenen, *batnen, of North Germanic origin, probably from Old Norse batna (“to grow better, improve, recover”), from Proto-Germanic *batnaną (“to become better, improve”) (compare Old Norse bati (“advantage, improvement”), from Proto-Germanic *batô (“improvement, recovery”)), from *bataz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰed- (“good”). Compare battle…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0