Prepare for trouble, as in Here comes the boss--batten down the hatches. This term originated in the navy, where it signified preparing for a storm by fastening down canvas over doorways and hatches (openings) with strips of wood called battens. [Late 1800s]
Batten down the hatches
| Idioms: batten down the hatches |
| Best of the Web: Batten down the hatches |
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 | batten |
| A Lilith Thanksgiving: Frasier (TV Episode) (1996 Comedy TV Episode) |
| hatch |
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 | Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- batten
- A Lilith Thanksgiving: Frasier (TV Episode) (1996 Comedy TV Episode)
- hatch
- down (Idiom)
