If you need to quickly test a battery to see if it is new but you don’t have a multi-meter handy, you can drop your Alkaline battery (AA, AAA, C, D) vertically on a table from about 2-4 inches. A new battery will bounce only one or two times, where a partially used or dead battery will bounce multiple times.
-I wouldn’t recommend disposing of bouncing batteries immediately, but it is a quick way to weed out partially used batteries.