false vampire

American

noun

any large, carnivorous bat of the families Megadermatidae and Phyllostomatidae, of Africa, Asia, and Australia, erroneously reputed to suck the blood of animals and humans.

false vampire British

noun

any large insectivorous bat of the family Megadermatidae , of Africa, S and SE Asia, and Australia. They eat insects and small vertebrates but do not feed on blood

"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

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.

Ever since, Medellín Legorreta and his team have been tagging and tracking Vampyrum bats and woolly false vampire bats, which roam the same woodlands in this corner of the Yucatán.

From Science Magazine

A false vampire bat catches a mouse in India.

From National Geographic

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023