bat
Pluralbats
Pluralbats
- 1A flying, usually nocturnal mammal of the order Chiroptera, typically small and feeding on insects or fruit.
Researchers tracked a single bat as it hunted moths over the pond.
Fruit bats roost in large colonies high in the tropical canopy.
UsageSet phrase: as blind as a bat, meaning unable to see well.
- 2A club of wood or metal used to hit the ball in games such as baseball and cricket, or one used as a weapon.
She gripped the bat tightly and waited for the pitch.
Aluminum bats produce a distinctive ping on contact.
- 3
- 4The period during which a player takes a turn batting in a game.
Before the match, she had a long bat in the nets to get her timing right.
After waiting in the pavilion all afternoon, he finally got a bat just before the close of play.
UsageMostly have a bat or get a bat.
Similarinnings
- 5To strike something with a bat or, figuratively, as if with a bat.
Players bat the ball toward open gaps in the field.
Before the game, the coach batted fly balls to the outfielders for twenty minutes.
UsageFiguratively, bat ideas around means discuss them loosely.
Similarhit, strike, swat, knock, whack
Note
The verb goes back to Old French batre, 'to beat', but speakers now hear it as 'to use a bat'. The figurative phrase bat ideas around grows from that reading, with ideas tossed back and forth like a ball.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The verb derives from Old French batre, meaning ‘to beat’, through Middle English. en.wiktionary.org
- 6To flutter the eyelids or eyelashes, or to blink or wink.
He batted his eyelids to clear away the dust.
She likes to bat her lashes whenever she teases him.
UsageYou bat your eyelashes or eyelids; not bat an eye means show no surprise.
Note
The wingbeat behind it, possibly through the falconer's bate, belongs to the obsolete hawking verb.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The eyelid-fluttering verb may be a variant of bate. en.wiktionary.org
- Bat has an obsolete hawking sense meaning to flutter. en.wiktionary.org
- 7
- 8
Less common meanings
- 9Short for battery: the battery that powers a phone or other device, or the charge left in it.
This game drains my bat so fast that I can barely finish a match without plugging in.
Don't bother calling him; he said his bat was down to three percent an hour ago.
UsageYou may see low bat on device displays, meaning low battery.
Note
Shorthand for the electrical battery, the kind in phones and laptops: cell phone bat, laptop bat, Li-Ion bat, sometimes spelled batt.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Bat is a clipping of battery, also spelled batt. en.wiktionary.org
- 10
- 11A derogatory word for an old woman.
He grumbled that some old bat had scolded him at the bus stop.
Don't be such an old bat about it, she snapped.
UsageAlmost always used with old, as in an old bat or a silly old bat.
Note
An insult that rarely comes without old, and often silly too: in Bill Oddie's Gripping Yarns (2000), the narrator smiles while thinking 'you silly old bat!'
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Bill Oddie wrote Gripping Yarns, first published in 2000. bloomsbury.com
- The narrator smiles and thinks the words 'you silly old bat!' en.wiktionary.org
- 12The speed at which something moves.
The car shot past the gate at a fair bat.
The cyclists came down the lane at a fair bat, scattering the chickens in the farmyard.
UsageMostly after at with an adjective: at a good bat, at full bat.
Similarpace, rate, speed, clip, lick
Note
The Sporting Magazine of 1842 has a colt making the running 'at a good bat', and the Pall Mall Magazine of 1898 sends a host of fowl 'at full bat for the North Sea'.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Sporting Magazine uses 'at a good bat' of a colt making the running in 1842. en.wiktionary.org
- The Pall Mall Magazine uses 'at full bat for the North Sea' of a host of fowl in 1898. en.wiktionary.org
- 13To move swiftly and lightly from one spot to another.
Many students bat around Europe for a summer before starting university.
He batted around the office, never settling at one desk.
UsageMostly with around or about: bat around town all afternoon.
Similarflit, dart, flutter, zip
Note
W. A. Tuplin's 'Hot Work on a Star' in the Railway Magazine (1956) has a locomotive batting along at about a mile a minute, so the motion need not be light, only quick and busy.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- W. A. Tuplin wrote “Hot Work on a ‘Star’”, published in Railway Magazine in 1956. en.wiktionary.org
- The article describes a locomotive as batting along at about a mile a minute. en.wiktionary.org
- 14Short for batty: a slang word for the buttocks, used in Caribbean English and Multicultural London English.
The comedian slipped and fell flat on his bat to roars of laughter.
Move your bat off the couch and help with the dishes.
Note
A shortening of batty, used in Caribbean English and Multicultural London English for the buttocks or anus. Take care with the longer word: batty also has a derogatory sense for a gay man in Jamaican, Canadian and UK use, and a separate slang meaning 'crazy'.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Bat is a shortening of batty meaning buttocks or anus, labelled Caribbean and Multicultural London English. en.wiktionary.org
- Batty also denotes a gay man derogatorily in Jamaican, Canadian and UK usage. en.wiktionary.org
- Batty separately has the slang meaning crazy. en.wiktionary.org
- 15Dated form of baht: the basic unit of money of Thailand.
Note
An older spelling of the Thai currency, equal to 100 satang, which modern texts write as baht. The respelling covers only the money. Baht is also a Yorkshire word for 'without', 'about' or a bout of illness, and those meanings are not what this bat stands for.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Bat is an older spelling of baht, the Thai currency. en.wiktionary.org
- One baht equals 100 satang. thailand.go.th
- The variant spelling bat refers specifically to the currency sense of baht. en.wiktionary.org
- Baht means without in Yorkshire dialect. en.wiktionary.org
- Baht means about in Yorkshire dialect. en.wiktionary.org
- Baht can mean a bout of illness in Yorkshire dialect. en.wiktionary.org
- 16A spree or binge; a bout of merrymaking or heavy drinking.
Like a wild bender that runs until the money or the energy runs out.
The crew blew their wages on a three-day bat in the port town.
Every payday, half the logging crew would go off on a bat and stagger back to camp days later with empty pockets.
UsageMostly in on a bat or go on a bat.
Similarbinge, spree, bender, jag
Note
American slang that has dated: a bat was a spree, often a drinking one, and people went on a bat.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Bat is dated American slang for a spree or binge. en.wiktionary.org
- People used the expression on a bat for a drinking spree. gutenberg.org
- 17To flutter or beat the wings, as a hawk does when unsettled.
Note
A hawking verb that survived in dialect before falling out of use: to bat meant what to bate still means, for a hawk to beat its wings and try to fly from the fist or perch. A modern writer on hawks would say bate. The same quick beating carries over into the eyelash verb.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Bat meaning to flutter like a hawk is recorded as a British dialectal, obsolete verb. en.wiktionary.org
- Bate in falconry means to flap the wings vigorously. en.wiktionary.org
- Bating includes attempting to fly from the fist or perch while tethered. nysfa.org
- The eyelash verb is connected with the fluttering verb bate through dialectal bat meaning blink or wink. worldwidewords.org
- 18A packsaddle; a saddle made to carry loads on a beast of burden.
Note
An obsolete borrowing from French bât, a packsaddle, which goes back through Vulgar Latin to a Greek verb meaning 'to lift, carry'. It is a doublet of baton: one ancestor produced two English words, a load-bearing saddle and a stick. Despite the spelling, it is unrelated to the club and the animal.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- The packsaddle sense is an obsolete borrowing from French bât. en.wiktionary.org
- French bât derives through Vulgar Latin from Greek βαστάζω, meaning to lift or carry. en.wiktionary.org
- Bat in this sense and baton are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- The club sense has a separate origin. en.wiktionary.org
- The animal sense has a separate origin. en.wiktionary.org
- 19A child's shoe constructed without a welt, the band of material that joins the upper to the sole.
Note
A shoe-trade word for the plain, cheap end of children's footwear. The Boot and Shoe Recorder in 1909 urged retailers to sell a little girl 'a pretty pair of shoes' instead of 'a pair of bats'. Otherwise, it warned, she would grow up buying 'bargain bats elsewhere'. Now obsolete and dialectal, it survives in period texts like that one.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The shoe-trade passage treats bats as inexpensive footwear, contrasting them with pretty, stylish shoes. en.wiktionary.org
- The cited volume of Boot and Shoe Recorder was published in 1909. books.google.com
- The passage advocates selling a girl pretty shoes instead of bats, using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- The passage links that sale to her later buying stylish shoes instead of bargain bats elsewhere. en.wiktionary.org
- 20A poorly made boot, or one worn into shabby condition.
Note
Where the welt-less child's shoe was a plain description, this is slang with contempt in it: a boot that is badly made or falling apart. Both are obsolete British usage, so the word belongs in historical dialogue. A present-day speaker would simply call the boots cheap or worn out.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Bat meant a child's shoe without a welt; this was obsolete British dialect usage. en.wiktionary.org
- Bat meant a badly made or shabby boot; this was obsolete British slang. en.wiktionary.org
- 21A piece of a brick that still retains one whole, unbroken end.
- 22Shale, particularly the bituminous kind found among coal seams.
- 23The flat piece of wood on which the spinner sets the coins before tossing them, used in the game of two-up.
- 24A stroke of work; an amount of effort or labor performed.
- 25Manner, rate, or condition; also a person's state of health.
- 26A roughly made, unfinished walking stick.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
A dialectal variant of Middle English "bakke" (also "balke"), of North Germanic origin. It is perhaps connected to Old Norse "leðrblaka," literally "(leather) flapper," from "leðr" plus "blaka" ("to flap"), and compares with Old Swedish "natbakka" and Old Danish "nathbakkæ."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The animal name bat is a dialectal variant of Middle English bakke, also spelled balke. ro.wiktionary.org
- The animal name has North Germanic origins. en.wiktionary.org
- Bat is possibly connected with Old Norse leðrblaka, literally leather flapper, and comparable with Old Swedish natbakka and Old Danish nathbakkæ. en.wikipedia.org
- Old Norse leðrblaka contains leðr, meaning leather, and blaka, meaning to flap. flaggermus.no
Old English batt ("bat, club, cudgel") became Middle English bat. The Old English word is probably Celtic in origin (compare Old Breton bath, "club," and modern Breton bazh, "swagger stick"). If so, it may trace back to a derivative of *bʰedʰh₂-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to strike, beat, pierce." Latin battuo ("I beat") may have come from a Gaulish source in a similar way.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Old English batt meant bat, club, or cudgel and developed into Middle English bat. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English word probably has a Celtic origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Breton bath meant club. en.wiktionary.org
- Modern Breton bazh can mean swagger stick. en.wiktionary.org
- The proposed Celtic ancestry may ultimately involve a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰh₂-, glossed as to strike, beat, pierce. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin battuo means I beat. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin battuo may likewise have been borrowed from Gaulish. en.wiktionary.org
From Middle English batten ("to beat"), from Old French batre, from Late Latin battere, from Latin battuere, of uncertain origin: perhaps Germanic or Celtic. In modern English it is heard as a verb made from bat, the club; compare batter and battery.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- The verb bat derives from Middle English batten, meaning to beat. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English verb came from Old French batre. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French batre derives from Late Latin battere. en.wiktionary.org
- Battere developed from the earlier Latin battuere. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin word's origin is uncertain, possibly Germanic or Celtic. en.wiktionary.org
- Batter is etymologically related to this verb. en.wiktionary.org
- Battery shares the Old French and Latin ancestry. en.wiktionary.org
Possibly a variant of bate, the falconer's word for a hawk beating its wings.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Bat may be a variant of bate. en.wiktionary.org
- Bate is a falconry term for a hawk beating its wings. en.wiktionary.org
Ancient Greek bastázō ("to lift, carry") led to Vulgar Latin *bastāre ("to carry") and its form *bastum, then to Old French bast and French bât, which English borrowed. English bat, baton, and baston are doublets.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Ancient Greek bastázō means “to lift, carry”. en.wiktionary.org
- Vulgar Latin *bastāre (“to carry”) derives from Ancient Greek bastázō, and *bastum derives from that Latin verb. en.wiktionary.org
- The chain continues through Old French bast and French bât, which English borrowed as bat. en.wiktionary.org
- English bat, baton, and baston are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org