English Explanatory Dictionary

bat

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any flying mammal of the order Chiroptera, usually small and nocturnal, insectivorous or frugivorous.
  2. An old woman.
noun
  1. A club, made of wood like a baseball bat or otherwise, used as a weapon
  2. A club made of wood or aluminium used for striking the ball in sports such as baseball, softball and cricket.
  3. A turn at hitting the ball with a bat in a game.
  4. A player rated according to skill in batting.
  5. The piece of wood on which the spinner places the coins and then uses for throwing them.
  6. Shale or bituminous shale.
  7. A sheet of cotton used for filling quilts or comfortables; batting.
  8. A part of a brick with one whole end.
  9. A stroke; a sharp blow.
  10. A stroke of work.
  11. Rate of motion; speed.
  12. A spree; a jollification; a binge, jag.
verb
  1. To hit with a bat or (figuratively) as if with a bat.
  2. To take a turn at hitting a ball with a bat in sports like cricket, baseball and softball, as opposed to fielding.
  3. To strike or swipe as though with a bat.
  4. To bate or flutter, as a hawk.
verb
  1. To flutter
  2. To wink.
  3. To flit quickly from place to place.
noun
  1. A packsaddle.
noun
  1. Dated form of baht (“Thai currency”).
noun
  1. Clipping of batty (“buttocks or anus”).
noun
  1. A child's shoe without a welt.
  2. A boot that is badly made or in poor condition.
noun
  1. Clipping of battery.
name
  1. Abbreviation of Bathurst.
noun
  1. Initialism of best available technology: a principle applying to regulations on limiting pollutant discharges.
  2. Initialism of brown adipose tissue.
  3. One or more of the Chinese technology companies Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

Pronunciation

/bæt/ en-us-bat.ogg en-au-bat.ogg

Word forms

bat bats batting batted

Etymology

Dialectal variant (akin to dialectal Swedish natt-batta) of Middle English bakke, balke, of North Germanic origin. Perhaps compare Old Norse (leðr)blaka (literally “(leather) flapper”), from leðr + blaka (“to flap”). Compare Old Swedish natbakka, Old Danish nathbakkæ.

Synonyms

chiropter chiropteran flindermouse flitterbat flittermouse fluttermouse flying mouse rattlemouse reremouse kip kylie lannet stick

Related words

batt bat chayil bat mitzvah bits and bats BATNEEC FANG FAANG MAMAA

Derived words

alien space bats a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat anvil bat baby bat badger bat banana bat barbastelle bat bat box bat bug Batcape batcorder batcrap bat detector batdom bat ear bat-eared fox batfaced bat falcon Batfamily batfish* bat flower batflower bat fly bat-fowler batfowler bat-fowling bat hawk bat house bat laurel batless batlike batling Batman batmeat batmobile bat nut batologist bat phone bat plant batpoop bat ray bats batshit batsicle batskin batspit batsqueak bat star batswing bat tick battish bat tree batty Batusi Batverse batwing bat wing Bechstein's bat big brown bat big-eared bat*
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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