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definitions

bats

[bats]
See more synonyms for bats on Thesaurus.com
adjective Slang.
  1. insane; crazy: He's gone bats.

Origin of bats

First recorded in 1915–20; see origin at bat2, -s3

bat

1
[bat]
noun
  1. Sports.
    1. the wooden club used in certain games, as baseball and cricket, to strike the ball.
    2. a racket, especially one used in badminton or table tennis.
    3. a whip used by a jockey.
    4. the act of using a club or racket in a game.
    5. the right or turn to use a club or racket.
  2. a heavy stick, club, or cudgel.
  3. Informal. a blow, as with a bat.
  4. any fragment of brick or hardened clay.
  5. Masonry. a brick cut transversely so as to leave one end whole.
  6. British Slang. speed; rate of motion or progress, especially the pace of the stroke or step of a race.
  7. Slang. a spree; binge: to go on a bat.
  8. Ceramics.
    1. a sheet of gelatin or glue used in bat printing.
    2. a slab of moist clay.
    3. a ledge or shelf in a kiln.
    4. a slab of plaster for holding a piece being modeled or for absorbing excess water from slip.
  9. batt.
verb (used with object), bat·ted, bat·ting.
  1. to strike or hit with or as if with a bat or club.
  2. Baseball. to have a batting average of; hit: He batted .325 in spring training.
verb (used without object), bat·ted, bat·ting.
  1. Sports.
    1. to strike at the ball with the bat.
    2. to take one's turn as a batter.
  2. Slang. to rush.
Verb Phrases
  1. bat around,
    1. Slang.to roam; drift.
    2. Informal.to discuss or ponder; debate: We batted the idea around.
    3. Baseball.to have every player in the lineup take a turn at bat during a single inning.
  2. bat in, Baseball. to cause (a run) to be scored by getting a hit: He batted in two runs with a double to left.
  3. bat out, to do, write, produce, etc., hurriedly: I have to bat out a term paper before class.
Idioms
  1. at bat, Baseball.
    1. taking one's turn to bat in a game: at bat with two men in scoring position.
    2. an instance at bat officially charged to a batter except when the batter is hit by a pitch, receives a base on balls, is interfered with by the catcher, or makes a sacrifice hit or sacrifice fly: two hits in three at bats.
  2. bat the breeze. breeze1(def 11).
  3. go to bat for, Informal. to intercede for; vouch for; defend: to go to bat for a friend.
  4. right off the bat, Informal. at once; without delay: They asked me to sing right off the bat.

Origin of bat

1
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English bat, bot, batte, Old English batt, perhaps < Celtic; compare Irish, Scots Gaelic bat, bata staff, cudgel; (v.) Middle English batten, partly from the noun, partly < Old French batre; see batter1

Synonyms for bat

See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com
10. knock, wallop, swat, smack, sock, slug; clout, clobber.

bat

2
[bat]
noun
  1. any of numerous flying mammals of the order Chiroptera, of worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions, having modified forelimbs that serve as wings and are covered with a membranous skin extending to the hind limbs.
Idioms
  1. blind as a bat, nearly or completely blind; having very poor vision: Anyone can tell that he's blind as a bat, but he won't wear glasses.
  2. have bats in one's belfry, Informal. to have crazy ideas; be very peculiar, erratic, or foolish: If you think you can row across the ocean in that boat, you have bats in your belfry.

Origin of bat

2
1570–75; apparently < Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish natt-batta, variant of Old Swedish natt-bakka night-bat; replacing Middle English bakke (< Scand), Middle English balke for *blake < Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish natt-blacka
Related formsbat·like, adjective

bat

3
[bat]
verb (used with object), bat·ted, bat·ting.
  1. to blink; wink; flutter.
Idioms
  1. not bat an eye, to show no emotion or surprise; maintain a calm exterior: The murderer didn't bat an eye when the jury announced its verdict of guilty.

Origin of bat

3
First recorded in 1605–15; variant of bate2

batt

or bat

[bat]
noun
  1. a sheet of matted cotton, wool, or synthetic fibers.

Origin of batt

First recorded in 1830–40; special use of bat1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for bats

sock, blow, knock, thwack, bop, crack, wallop, smack, swat, bang, slam, rap, thump, strike, whack, belt, whop

Examples from the Web for bats

Contemporary Examples of bats

Historical Examples of bats

British Dictionary definitions for bats

bats

adjective
  1. informal crazy; very eccentric

Word Origin for bats

from bats-in-the-belfry (sense 2)

batt

noun
  1. textiles another word for batting (def. 1)
  2. Australian and NZ a slab-shaped piece of insulating material used in building houses

bat

1
noun
  1. any of various types of club with a handle, used to hit the ball in certain sports, such as cricket, baseball, or table tennis
  2. a flat round club with a short handle, resembling a table-tennis bat, used by a man on the ground to guide the pilot of an aircraft when taxiing
  3. cricket short for batsman
  4. any stout stick, esp a wooden one
  5. informal a blow from such a stick
  6. Australian a small board used for tossing the coins in the game of two-up
  7. US and Canadian slang a drinking spree; binge
  8. slang speed; rate; pacethey went at a fair bat
  9. another word for batting (def. 1)
  10. carry one's bat cricket (of an opening batsman) to reach the end of an innings without being dismissed
  11. off one's own bat
    1. of one's own accord; without being prompted by someone else
    2. by one's own unaided efforts
  12. off the bat or right off the bat US and Canadian informal immediately; without hesitation
verb bats, batting or batted
  1. (tr) to strike with or as if with a bat
  2. (intr) sport (of a player or a team) to take a turn at batting
See also bat around

Word Origin for bat

Old English batt club, probably of Celtic origin; compare Gaelic bat, Russian bat

bat

2
noun
  1. any placental mammal of the order Chiroptera, being a nocturnal mouselike animal flying with a pair of membranous wings (patagia). The group is divided into the Megachiroptera (fruit bats) and Microchiroptera (insectivorous bats)Related adjective: chiropteran
  2. slang an irritating or eccentric woman (esp in the phrase old bat)
  3. blind as a bat having extremely poor eyesight
  4. have bats in the belfry or have bats in one's belfry informal to be mad or eccentric; have strange ideas
  5. like a bat out of hell slang very quickly
Derived Formsbatlike, adjective

Word Origin for bat

C14 bakke, probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse ledhrblaka leather-flapper, Swedish dialect natt-batta night bat

bat

3
verb bats, batting or batted (tr)
  1. to wink or flutter (one's eyelids)
  2. not bat an eye or not bat an eyelid informal to show no surprise or concern

Word Origin for bat

C17: probably a variant of bate ²
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
Word Origin and History for bats

bat

v.2

"to hit with a bat," mid-15c., from bat (n.1). Related: Batted; batting.

bat

n.1

"a stick, a club," Old English *batt "cudgel," perhaps from Celtic (cf. Irish and Gaelic bat, bata "staff, cudgel"), influenced by Old French batte, from Late Latin battre "beat;" all from PIE root *bhat- "to strike." Also "a lump, piece" (mid-14c.), as in brickbat. As a kind of paddle used to play cricket, it is attested from 1706.

Phrase right off the bat is 1888, also hot from the bat (1888), probably a baseball metaphor, but cricket is possible as a source; there is an early citation from Australia (in an article about slang): "Well, it is a vice you'd better get rid of then. Refined conversation is a mark of culture. Let me hear that kid use slang again, and I'll give it to him right off the bat. I'll wipe up the floor with him. I'll ---" ["The Australian Journal," November 1888].

bat

n.2

flying mammal (order Chiroptera), 1570s, a dialectal alteration of Middle English bakke (early 14c.), which is probably related to Old Swedish natbakka, Old Danish nathbakkæ "night bat," and Old Norse leðrblaka "leather flapper," so original sense is likely "flapper." The shift from -k- to -t- may have come through confusion of bakke with Latin blatta "moth, nocturnal insect."

Old English word for the animal was hreremus, from hreran "to shake" (see rare (adj.2)), and rattle-mouse is attested from late 16c., an old dialectal word for "bat." As a contemptuous term for an old woman, perhaps a suggestion of witchcraft (cf. fly-by-night), or from bat as "prostitute who plies her trade by night" [Farmer, who calls it "old slang" and finds French equivalent "night swallow" (hirondelle de nuit) "more poetic"].

bat

v.1

"to move the eyelids," 1847, American English, from earlier sense of "flutter as a hawk" (1610s), a variant of bate (v.2) on the notion of fluttering wings. Related: Batted; batting.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with bats

bat

In addition to the idioms beginning with bat

  • bat an eye
  • bat around
  • bat one thousand
  • bats in one's belfry, have
  • bat the breeze

also see:

  • at bat
  • blind as a bat
  • bats in one's belfry
  • go to bat for
  • like a bat out of hell

right off the bat.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.