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flittermouse

American  
[flit-er-mous] / ˈflɪt ərˌmaʊs /

noun

  • flittermice
    plural
  1. bat.


flittermouse British  
/ ˈflɪtəˌmaʊs /

noun

  1. a dialect name for bat 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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of flittermouse

1540–50; flitter 1 + mouse; calque of German Fledermaus

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:

In the light of futurity's favours Fair gratitude burgeons amain, And the flittermouse Love never wavers In truth to the Psyche of gain.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, July 26, 1890 by Various

Over all the jackdaws chime and chatter, for it is their home now, and they share it with the owl and the flittermouse.

From A West Country Pilgrimage by Eden Phillpots

However, in some parts of the country the bat is still called by its old English name, "the flittermouse," that is, the mouse that flitters, or flutters about.

From The Squirrels and other animals Illustrations of the habits and instincts of many of the smaller British quadrupeds by George Waring

From out the wood I watched them shine,—   The windows of the haunted house, Now ruddy as enchanted wine,   Now dark as flittermouse.

From Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes Volume II. by Walter De la Mare

In at least sixteen dialects a flittermouse means “a bat.”

From English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat

In some places bats are called flittermice, but they are more nearly related to moles, shrews, and other insect-eaters than they are to mice.

From The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year by William Beebe

It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself.

From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt

Bats look more like mice than they do like birds, and they are sometimes called flittermice.

From The Human Side of Animals by Royal Dixon

I can endure flittermice painted blue, but they must wear petticoats—and pretty petticoats too.

From Red Axe by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

Three bats or flittermice are in the shield of Burninghill and in that of Heyworth of Whethamstede.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various

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