A battery is a source of DC voltage, so your voltmeter should be set to measure DC volts. Never have your voltmeter set to measure resistance when hooked up to a battery. You can fry your voltmeter. Luckily, the battery under test was dead, and so your voltmeter was saved.

And never, EVER, connect a power source -- battery or otherwise -- to a voltmeter set to measure current. That would be Ghostbusters bad.