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  • batman
    batman
    noun
    a soldier assigned to an officer as a servant.
  • Batman
    Batman
    noun
    John . 1801–39, a pioneer who selected the site of the city of Melbourne

batman

American  
[bat-muhn] / ˈbæt mən /

noun

  • batmen
    plural
  1. a soldier assigned to an officer as a servant.


Batman 1 British  
/ ˈbætmən /

noun

  1. John . 1801–39, a pioneer who selected the site of the city of Melbourne

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

batman 2 British  
/ ˈbætmən /

noun

  1. an officer's personal servant in any of the armed forces

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Batman 3 British  
/ ˈbætˌmæn /

noun

  1. a character in an American comic strip and several films who secretly assumes a batlike costume in order to fight crime

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Batman Cultural  
  1. A comic strip character that first appeared in 1939. With his faithful sidekick Robin (the Boy Wonder), Batman fights crime in Gotham City, foiling evil villains such as the Joker and the Riddler.


Discover More

Batman's adventures have been widely adapted for television and a number of motion pictures.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of batman

1745–55; short for bat-horse man, equivalent to bat < French bât packsaddle (< Vulgar Latin *bastum, noun derivative of *bastāre to carry < Late Greek *bastân, re-formation of Greek bastázein to lift, carry) + horse + man


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Meet the real batman, Michael Morbius, the so-called Living Vampire.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2022

"His batman voice im losing it????" a fan wrote.

From Fox News ● Oct. 16, 2021

There are other accounts of an officer with shell shock having to be physically restrained by his "burly batman".

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2016

There’s Bruce Wayne in an elegant tuxedo jacket with a not-so-discreet batman logo, carrying a leather backpack strapped to a skateboard.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 16, 2016

He had been the Colonel's batman in the war, he explained; they had been in Belgium together when the Germans had invaded and they had been together again for the Allied landing.

From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Steven Soderbergh is stepping in to help finish shooting “The Batman Part II” while director Matt Reeves continues to deal with a personal matter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

AFP also met several demonstrators who wore Batman masks to avoid being identified.

From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026

He’s also got the next Batman film in the pipeline, although production on that has reportedly paused, external.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

That playbook could translate readily to Paramount and Warner, which together control a deep bench of franchises including Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Transformers and SpongeBob SquarePants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

She goes down the hall, takes the fastest shower ever, and changes into her Batman T-shirt.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

Moments later Gary is being ushered out in a blur of drivers and batmen and image-straighteners.

From The Guardian ● May 30, 2014

Or so the Leicestershire batmen made it appear in managing to lose all their first innings wickets in the space of 44.3 overs.

From The Guardian ● May 22, 2013

Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, calls the would-be defenders "batmen" and "hoodlums."

From Time Magazine Archive

They are incarcerated in a luxurious villa, where the commandant is a former hotel manager and the guards behave like well-trained batmen.

From Time Magazine Archive

I found afterwards that it is unwise to select batmen for their piety.

From The Great War As I Saw It by Frederick George Scott

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