bat¹ Definition
bat (bat)
noun
- any stout club, stick, or cudgel
- a club used to strike the ball in baseball and cricket
- a ping-pong paddle, squash racket, etc.
- ☆ a turn at batting, as in baseball
- Brit. a batsman at cricket
- cotton batting, esp. of an inferior quality; batt
- the whip used by a jockey
- Informal a blow or hit
- ☆ Slang a drinking bout; spree
- Brit., Informal fast pace; speed
- Ceramics a plaster disk on which the clay is based in modeling
Etymology: ME < OE batt, cudgel (prob. < Welsh bat < IE base *bhat-, to strike) & < OFr batte, pestle < battre, batter
transitive verb bat′·ted, bat′·ting
- to strike with or as with a bat
- to have a batting average of
intransitive verb
- to use a bat to bat left-handed
- to take a turn at batting to bat third in the lineup
bat¹ Idioms
at bat
☆Baseball taking a turn at batting
bat around
☆ Slang- to travel or roam about
- to consider or discuss (an idea, plan, etc.) freely and informally
- Baseball to have all the batters in the lineup come to bat in a single inning
bat out
☆Slang to create or compose quickly or hastily
go to bat for
☆Informal to intervene on behalf of; defend
(right) off the bat
☆Informal immediately
bat² Definition
bat (bat)
noun
any of an order (Chiroptera) of furry, nocturnal flying mammals having membranous wings and navigating by echolocation; chiropter: various bats feed on insects, nectar, fruit, flesh, or blood
Etymology: altered < ME bakke < Scand, as in OSwed backa
bat² Idioms
blind as a bat
quite blind
have bats in the belfry
or have bats in one's belfry☆Slang to be insane; have crazy notions
bat³ Definition
bat (bat)
transitive verb bat′·ted, bat′·ting
Informal to wink; blink; flutter
Etymology: ME baten, to flap (wings) < OFr battre, batter
bat³ Idioms
not bat an eye
or not bat an eyelash☆Informal not show surprise
bat Synonyms
bat
n.
A club, especially one used in sports
ball bat, baseball bat, cricket bat, stick, club, racket, pole, mallet. *A blow
A turn at batting
blind as a bat*
go to bat for*
have bats in one's belfry*
not bat an eye<strong> <em>or</em> </strong>eyelash*
(right) off the bat*
bat Synonyms
bat Usage Examples
Object
eyelid: Well, Sean sailed through his rite of passage barely batting an eyelid.
Converse of object
- hibernate: Can put grills on cave entrances to prevent interference to hibernating bats.
- wield: Shortly after 9.30pm, 5 men approached the house wielding baseball bats.
- roost: So problems only arise when building or repair work is being done which would disturb a colony of roosting bats.
Adjective modifier
- long-eared: Can also be distinguished from the brown long-eared bat by the length of the thumb.
- insectivorous: The use of sewage treatment works as foraging sites by insectivorous bats.
- free-tailed: The Guide reckoned we saw about 3.5 million Mexican Free-tailed Bats exit the Cave in one hour 7.30-8.30pm.
- whiskered: Vertebrate species in the Irish Vertebrate Red Data Book include whiskered bat, shoveler, pochard and brook lamprey.
Modifies a noun
- roost: Mature trees, which are to be removed, should be inspected to whether they form bat roosts.
- guano: She works on lake and marine sediment as well as on bat guano and honey.
- detector: An opportunity to listen to bats using our bat detector.
- rabies: Laboratory investigation of human deaths from vampire bat rabies in Peru.
- mitzvah: I've got my bat mitzvah soon, which is my rite of passage.
- droppings: No scraping of tables, flicking of bat droppings, or throwing of paper darts during any liturgy.
Noun used with modifier
- horseshoe: Methods Samples of DNA were collected under license from English Nature from greater horseshoe bats in Dorset during 2005.
- baseball: I don't even have my baseball bat yet.
- pipistrelle: A single pipistrelle bat can eat up to 3000 insects per night.
- cricket: Unlike, say, a tennis racket or cricket bat, a snooker cue is thought irreplaceable by its owner.
- vampire: Third, by this time tales had perhaps begun to drift back of the vampire bats found in the New World.
- noctule: PETIT, E. ( 1998 ) Population structure and post-glacial history of the noctule bat Nyctalus noctula ( Chiroptera, Mammalia ).
Browse dictionary entries near bat
- ‹ Basutoland
- ‹ Bastogne
- ‹ Bastion Host
- ‹ bastion
- ‹ basting
- ‹ bastinado
- ‹ bastille
- ‹ baste
- ‹ bastardy proceeding
- ‹ bastardy
- bat around ›
- bat mitzvah ›
- Bat-Yam ›
- Bataan ›
- Batangas ›
- Batavia ›
- batboy ›
- batch ›
- bate ›
- bateau ›

