BAT Definition

BAT
abbreviation

1. British-American Tobacco Company.

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bat¹
noun

1. A shaped piece of wood, with a flat or curved surface, for hitting the ball in cricket, baseball, table-tennis, etc. Compare racket.

Thesaurus: club, stick, racket, pole, mallet.
2. chiefly cricket.
A batsman or batswoman.
3. A flat round short-handled signalling device used by a batsman (sense 2) to guide aircraft on the ground.
4. A quick and usually gentle or inoffensive blow with a flat hand or other flat-sided object, etc.

verb batted, batting

intr
1. cricket.baseball.
To take a turn at hitting a ball with a bat; to have an innings.
Example: get a chance to bat before lunch
2. To hit something with, or as if with, a bat.

Thesaurus: hit, strike, whack, sock (slang).

Idiom: off one's own bat

Unaided.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon batt club or stick.

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bat²
noun

1. Any of numerous species of small nocturnal mammals which have a fur-covered body and membranous wings, and in most cases hunt for food in darkness by relying mainly on echolocation.

Idiom: have bats in the belfry

colloq
To be crazy or slightly mad. See also bats, batty.

Idiom: like a bat out of hell

colloq
Very fast.

Etymology: 16c; 14c as bakke.

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bat³
verb

batted, batting
1. To open and close (one's eyelids) very quickly, usually to attract sympathy or admiration.

Example: batted her eyelashes coyly at him

Idiom: not bat an eye (not bat an eyelid)

(riginally US)
colloq
To show no surprise or emotion.
Example: He didn't bat an eye when he heard the news

Etymology: 17c as a variant of bate (used of a hawk) to flutter or flap (when on the leash).