batten

The White House on Thursday felt a bit like a building battening down for a coming storm.

A "design defect" meant driving rain was being trapped beneath tonnes of concrete tiles, rotting the wooden battens that held them up.

The prime minister will be wanting to "get things sorted out, batten down the hatches and get things moving forward," Baroness Harman said.

Now TV’s top prizes must batten down the hatches for a major contraction.

Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said "cautious consumers are battening down the hatches" so retailers should expect demand to be down in the first few months of 2024.