battue means A form of hunting in which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes, etc. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 81 out of 100.
battue is pronounced /bəˈt(j)uː/.
Why “battue” is a great word
BATTUE — [Noun] A method of hunting in which beaters systematically drive game animals from cover toward a stationary line of hunters. From the French battue ("a beating"), the feminine past participle of battre ("to beat"), from Latin battuere ("to beat"). Unlike stalking—the solitary, silent pursuit of a single quarry—or a bloodbath—which suggests chaotic and indiscriminate slaughter—a battue is a premeditated spectacle of orchestrated panic. It is the percussive thunder of sticks beating the underbrush, the panicked surge of birds against a grey sky, and the waiting guns standing like grim sentinels in the mist: a ritual that replaces the wilderness's chaos with a brief and violent symmetry.
Etymology
From French battue, ultimately from Latin battere. Doublet of battuta, which arrived via Italian.
noun
- A form of hunting in which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes, etc.“[page 203] In battue, whenever a hen rises, the signal "ware hen!" is called out by the sportsman or beater who is nearest it: meaning thereby "beware of the hen;" or, literally, "do not shoot the hen pheasant." In most places where game is very strictly preserved, and the rules of sporting firmly adhered to, a fine is imposed on any one who kills a hen pheasant in battue. […] [page 204] No dogs n”
- A hunt performed in this manner.“The battues have nothing whatever to do with the poaching, and once sufficiently grand battue would put an end to poaching altogether, by destroying all the game. The evil of which the chancellor should have spoken, is the excessive game preserving which allows of battues, or great massacres. The game is preserved till it swarms, and then it is slaughtered in swarms; but it is clearly not the mass”