Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) a formidable (older) woman.

[1842		Whip (N.Y.) 3 Dec. 2/2: Hannah [Williams] is the leader of a society called the ‘Battle Axes,’ the chief doctrine of which seems to be to do away with the institution of marriage.].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 7: Battle Axe, a dissipated old woman.
1896		Ade Artie 49: Say, there was a battle-ax if you ever see one. She had a face on her that’d fade flowers.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 313: Mrs Joker (to herself). The old battle-axe has got something good.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 12: The little, pretty ones fur me – them big battleaxes has had their day.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 160: I was just side-steppin’ to make room for some upholstered old battle-ax that I supposed owned the rig.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 38/1: ‘Me old battle-axe says she wants’ — / ‘Yuss, an’ who is yer old battle-axe, me Billy the blob?’ inquires Mr. Tonks, playfully. / ‘Me mother – me ole woman, o’ course. Don’t yer know English?’.
1919		Van Loan ‘Chivalry in Carbon County’ in Score by Innings (2004) 325: Two of the biggest old battle-axes I ever saw in my life.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 164: The dirty, big, red-headed Amazonian battle-ax.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 1: It meant Battleaxe Bertha talking and hearing lessons.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 130: That old battle-axe started tellin’ me that some boy had spotted me.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 185: I visited the home of Hedda Hopper, a gracious battleaxe.
1947		G. Kersh Prelude to a Certain Midnight Bk I Ch. ix: There was something sympathetic about the Battleaxe, [...] Many people liked her in spite of her savage tongue and belligerent manner.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 11: She was good-looking with blue eyes and fair hair. Most of the pubs had old battle-axes.
1955		F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 100: He’d had a tough time with his wife, who must be a real battle-axe.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 180: Why, that old battle ax, she is human after all.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 150: Turkelson had a mother whom he doted on; a hypochondriacal old battle-axe.
1977		Sun (London) 19 Aug. 6: Gwenda made the old battle-axe endearing.
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 17: There was an old battleaxe of a cook.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Family Splits’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [S]he’s a nagging battleaxe with a face like a mangey doberman.
1997		A. Frewin London Blues 38: A real battle-axe in her day. She used to give us kids such a rucking if she ever caught us getting up to no good.
1999		Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 52: Anthony’s old camel-faced battleaxe of a mother.
1999		Observer 11 July 17: Battleaxe boarding house landladies [...] are still much in evidence.
2001		Week (US) 4 May 17: You feel like you’re back at school, quaking at your desk as some battle-ax of a teacher rips into the slowest kid in the class.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 116: I suppose there’s something about a hungry young fella that charms the battleaxes.

2. (US campus) a fat woman or girl.

1932

J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 329: battle-ax—a stout female.

3. (US Und.) a female vagrant.

1937

‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 287: Tavern Habitue. The battle ax — the female bum.

4. (US campus) an ex-girlfriend, usu. as old battle-ax.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.