DCHP-1 Online

batture [< Cdn F]

• 1 n. Obs. a shoal or rocky shore, usually exposed at low water.

  • 1808  (1960)  A strong Batture on left near beginning of the course, with a very high and rugged rock.
  • 1822  The weather was remarkably cold during last night, & considerable quantities of ice were seen on the battures this morning

• 2 n. Obs. an expanse of river beach; strand.

  • 1825  (1931)  Forded the River twice and Encamped on the Bature at Sun Set.
  • 1873  (1922)  Our mode of progress was . . . going ashore and hauling the boat when the wide beach called a "Batture" was on our side of the river.
  • 1912  These "bottoms" were called "battures" by the voyageurs.

• 3 n. a sand bar, especially one that forms a small island when the water is low.

  • 1814  (1897)  Our people went on a few miles and then camped to dry their packs on a batture (sand bar).
  • 1869  (1942)  [There were] numerous low islands, and many sand bars, or "battures," as the voyageurs call them.
  • 1909  . . . an island or sandbar in a river is a "batture."

• 4 n. Cdn French See bottom ice 1958 quote.

  See also: bottom ice  

  • 1866  (1873)  . . . I noticed him skimming majestically over vast ice fields, battures, as they are called. . . .
  • 1941  There was still a broad selvedge of ice--what the Canadian French call a Batture--but in the middle the ice was cracking.