Battle of the Nations
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
See NATIONS. Battle of the Poets, The. A satirical poem (1725) by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in which the versifiers of the time are brought into the field.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Battle of the Nations” mean?
See NATIONS. Battle of the Poets, The. A satirical poem (1725) by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in which the versifiers of the time are brought into the field.
Is “Battle of the Nations” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.