baton

[ buh-ton, ba-, bat-n ]

SEE DEFINITION OF baton

nounstick used for conducting or for protection

Synonyms for baton

MOST RELEVANT

EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR BATON

"Then give me a baton," she responded, springing to her feet.

Oh, I'll have to send you to the provost-martial at Baton Rouge and let you settle that with him.

Then the conductor, seeing that the incident was over, raised his baton.

As he did so, I loosed a cry of alarm and almost dropped the baton.

In his hand was a baton which he brandished demoniacally at an orchestra of his own.

Wave the baton with right hand (forefinger extended) left, right, left and right.

Glory and the field-marshal's baton, after fifty-one years of hard work!

Instead of trailing the ever onward Parade, she juggled the Baton at the head of the Push.

He had telegraphed to Baton Rouge for the police to search the steamer on her arrival.

He tapped the music-stand sharply, raised his baton, and then went on talking.

WORD ORIGIN

1540s, "a staff used as a weapon," from French bâton "stick, walking stick, staff, club, wand," from Old French baston (12c.) "stick, staff, rod," from Late Latin bastum "stout staff," probably of Gaulish origin or else from Greek *baston "support," from bastazein "to lift up, raise, carry." Meaning "staff carried as a symbol of office" is from 1580s; musical sense of "conductor's wand" is from 1841 (from 1839 as a French word in English). Often anglicized 17c.-18c. as batoon.