Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal; the baton of a conductor in musical performances.

(Heraldry) An ordinary with its ends cut off, borne sinister as a mark of bastardy, and containing one fourth in breadth of the bend sinister; -- called also bastard bar. See Bend sinister.