Many men "battel" at the rate of a guinea a week. Wealthier men, more expensive men, and more careless men, often "battelled" much higher.—De Quincey's Life and Manners, p. 274.
Cotgrave says, "To battle (as scholars do in Oxford) être debteur an collège pour ses vivres." He adds, "Mot usé seulement des jeunes écoliers de l'université d'Oxford."
2. To reside at the university; to keep terms.—Webster.
BATTEL. Derived from the old monkish word patella, or batella, a plate. At Oxford, "whatsoever is furnished for dinner and for supper, including malt liquor, but not wine, as well as the materials for breakfast, or for any casual refreshment to country visitors, excepting only groceries," is expressed by the word battels.—De Quincey.
I on the nail my Battels paid,
The monster turn'd away dismay'd.
The Student, Vol. I. p. 115, 1750.
BATTELER, BATTLER. A student at Oxford who stands indebted, in the college books, for provisions and drink at the buttery.—Webster.
Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, says, "The term is used in contradistinction to gentleman commoner." In Gent. Mag., 1787, p. 1146, is the following:—"There was formerly at Oxford an order similar to the sizars of Cambridge, called battelers (batteling having the same signification as sizing). The sizar and batteler were as independent as any other members of the college, though of an inferior order, and were under no obligation to wait upon anybody."
2. One who keeps terms, or resides at the University.—Webster.
BATTELING. At Oxford, the act of taking provisions from the buttery. Batteling has the same signification as SIZING at the University of Cambridge.—Gent. Mag., 1787, p. 1146.
Batteling in a friend's name, implies eating and drinking at his expense. When a person's name is crossed in the buttery, i.e. when he is not allowed to take any articles thence, he usually comes into the hall and battels for buttery supplies in a friend's name, "for," says the Collegian's Guide, "every man can 'take out' an extra commons, and some colleges two, at each meal, for a visitor: and thus, under the name of a guest, though at your own table, you escape part of the punishment of being crossed."—p. 158.