Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a tough, physically large and aggressive (older) woman; also attrib.

1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America II 165: You find no line-of-battleship matrons laid up in ordinary, so to speak, on settees.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 130: On the line Sister Ruth was called Battleship Ruth by the boys.
[1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 The landlady has a puss like a battleship].
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 332: Battleship – [...] a formidable female, such as the landlady or a henpecked man’s wife.
1975		J. McClure Snake 15: It hardly seems likely that your old battleship [i.e. mother] would approve.
1998		(con. 1940s) P. Cumper One Bright Child 88: Gloria! Slow down there, battleship!

2. the foot.

1919

DN V 64: Battle-ships, a term applied to the feet.

3. a large, heavy shoe.

1940

‘C.C.C. Chatter’ in AS XV:2 Apr. 211/1: The G.I. overshoes are called gun boats or battle ships.

4. (US ) a girl who wears a corset.

1926

Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Battleship - the girl who wears corsets.

5. a large train, truck or car.

1938		L. Beebe High Iron 219: Battleship: Large locomotive.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 Mar. 16: ‘That battleship kimbled through hill and vale’.
1962		D. Dempsey ‘Lang. of Traffic Policemen’ in AS XXXVII:4 266: battleship, n. Usually an old, overloaded track; may also refer to an old lumbering vehicle, such as a worn-out patrol car.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 173: What’d you do, smash up the battleship?

6. a pork chop.

1913		Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 26 Dec. 2/3: Railroad Eating House Lingo [...] Give me a coupla battleships, a pan of Murphies on the main line, and a string of flats on the siding.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 326: [as 1913].