batty
Americanadjective
adjective
-
insane; crazy
-
odd; eccentric
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of batty
Explanation
If someone's batty, she's eccentric or a little bit wacky. You might love it when your batty great aunt visits because she makes life so interesting. The adjective batty can be derogatory — as when you dismiss a mentally ill person as batty — or fond, as when you praise your batty English teacher, who quotes Shakespeare while doing handstands. If someone says, "You are driving me batty," it means you're making them feel crazy. Batty originally meant "like a bat," with the "eccentric" meaning arising from the expression "bats in the belfry," which means "crazy" or "not right in the head."
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:
But he recklessly raises tensions by keeping this batty idea alive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
That’s when all the fun started melting away, and before long, Meghan Trainor’s PR team issued an unforgettably batty press release for her Valentine’s Day-themed EP, where the word “bop” appeared twice in the copy.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
Kelly, from Liverpool, appeared in 48 episodes as the "batty" Noreen Maltby who was noted for her malapropisms.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
“A Working Man” opens with a batty pastiche of bullets and buzz saws, parachutes and cranes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
“He means he would think you were batty, Nell dear.”
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
Of all the dizzying technological boosterism in American history, from the penny press to the telegraph to the radio, no pronouncement was battier.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
JFK ranks among the most exasperating movies of all time for portraying Jim Garrison, one of the battier Kennedy-assassination conspiracy-mongers, as a truth-telling hero.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2016
Here are seven battier things they believe, from trees causing global warming to fetuses in your Pepsi.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2015
The young and appealing 14th Earl of Gurney, acted with keenly perceptive skill and presence by Douglas Rain, turns out to be far battier than the 13th earl.
From Time Magazine Archive
"But she is also somewhat battier, Malone, than the entire Order Chiroptera, including Count Dracula and all his happy friends."
From Occasion for Disaster by Garrett, Randall
Those entertainingly cheesy performances matter, because viewers who stick with the story to the end will be rewarded with one of the battiest plot-twists in recent B-movie memory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
His battiest complaint: She planned to open a Tennessee Williams theme park after his death.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2014
It calls the day "a demonstration of Britain at its battiest - and best", and suggests the service was a touch long.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2011
This time, Huston has found material that was all but guaranteed to fuel the battiest recesses of his imagination.
From Time Magazine Archive
Up in nosebleed country, on the 120th level, it was almost empty: sparsely populated by the very battiest bats, though as more and more humans were found batty, they pushed inexorably upwards.
From Home Again, Home Again by Doctorow, Cory
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
