battlemaster

English

Etymology

From battle +‎ master.

Noun

battlemaster (plural battlemasters)

1. One who is in charge of managing the troops during battle.
   • 1985, Raymond E[lias] Feist, Silverthorn, Grafton Books, published 1986, →ISBN, page 22:

     You shall be my battlemaster, Murad, and all shall know you stand highest among my servants.

   • 1988, Christopher Rowley, Golden Sunlands, Legend, →ISBN, page 177:

     Over the radio net the battlemasters chattered in yashi growls and hisses as they shuffled patrol formations again.

   • 1994, S[tephen] M[ichael] Stirling, Susan Shwartz, Judith Tarr, Harry Turtledove, Blood Vengeance (War World), Baen Books, →ISBN, page 209:

     Battlemasters didn’t have to answer to anybody.

   • 1995, Elaine Cunningham, Daughter of the Drow, TSR, Inc., →ISBN, page 295:

     With her elegant gowns and silvery ringlets, the delicate drow seemed the most unlikely of battlemasters.

   • 1997, David Feintuch, The Still, Warner Books, →ISBN, page 446:

     I set my javelin as our battlemaster had taught.

   • 2000, Troy Denning, Ed Greenwood, Death of the Dragon (The Cormyr Saga; III), Wizards of the Coast, published 2001, →ISBN, page 319:

     With flame, claw, and spell it—no, she, they said—smote the most valiant knights and the shrewdest battlemasters, sniffing out war wizards whatever their disguise and rending them to pieces.

   • 2001, John Ringo, Gust Front, Baen Books, →ISBN, page 678:

     A very junior battlemaster, he had no interest in facing well-prepared forces.

   • 2007, John Flanagan, The Burning Bridge, Corgi Yearling, →ISBN, page 12:

     After sixteen years of relative peace, people are growing complacent. Not the Rangers, of course, but the village people who provide men at arms for our army, and even some of the barons and battlemasters in remote fiefs to the north.

   • 2009, Troy C. Reeves, edited by Natalie Forman, The Call of Prophecy and the Struggle over the Fate of Caliyon, iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 155:

     Although he found no commander, whom he presumed was one of the ones to head south with the other exiles, he did spot two battlemasters among the ranks and he called the men forth.

   • 2010, Aaron Rosenberg, The M’arrillian Chronicles: The Khilaian Sphere, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, page 177:

     His commanders had risen behind him, and now began calling orders to their Battlemasters, who organized their squads and set them to marching.

   • 2011, Daniel Wallace, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 73:

     But those who can balance its intimidating aspects with the compassionate application of the Force may succeed in besting even their battlemasters.

   • 2014, Kevin Hoffman, The Fifth Vertex, →ISBN, page 222:

     The battlemasters always used to say that it wasn’t the painful wounds were the worst, it was the wound you couldn’t feel that would kill you.

   • 2016, Helen Lowe, Daughter of Blood (The Wall of Night; 3), Orbit, →ISBN, page 211:

     But I have no familiarity with war as you have, or my lord brother, our Battlemaster.

2. One who is in charge of managing simulated battle or war games.
   • 1992 September, Data Tables From Combat Vehicle Command and Control Battalion-Level Preliminary Evaluation, United States Army, Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, page F-9:

     The battlemaster will remind participants to conserve their ammo during remainder of scenario.

   • 1994, J. D. Fletcher, “What Networked Simulation Offers to the Assessment of Collectives”, in Harold F. O’Neil, Jr., Eva L. Baker, editors, Technology Assessment in Software Applications, Hillsdale, N.J., Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, →ISBN, page 261:

     No umpires, battlemasters, or other outside influences are expected or permitted to affect the outcome of a networked simulation engagement once it begins.

3. One who is very skilled in battling.
   • 1993 March, Clayton Walnum, “Lords of Thunder”, in VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, page 41:

     But a word of warning: This game is tough enough on the normal setting. Only battlemasters supreme will venture far on the higher settings.