I. bat 1 S3 /bæt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1,5-7: Date: 1500-1600 ; Origin: back 'bat' (14-16 centuries) , probably from a Scandinavian language. ]
[ Sense 2-4: Language: Old English ; Origin: batt ]
1 . a small animal like a mouse with wings that flies around at night ⇨ ↑ fruit bat
2 .
a) a long wooden stick with a special shape that is used in some sports and games:
a baseball bat
a cricket bat
b) British English a round flat piece of wood with a handle, used to hit a ball in ↑ table tennis SYN paddle American English
3 . be at bat to be the person who is trying to hit the ball in a game of ↑ baseball
4 . do something off your own bat British English informal to do something without being told to do it:
She went to see a solicitor off her own bat.
5 . do something right off the bat American English informal to do something immediately:
He said yes right off the bat.
6 . like a bat out of hell informal very fast:
I drove like a bat out of hell to the hospital.
7 . old bat spoken an unpleasant old woman
⇨ as blind as a bat at ↑ blind 1 (1c)
II. bat 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle batted , present participle batting )
[ Sense 1, 4-5: Date: 1400-1500 ; Origin: ⇨ ↑ bat 1 (2) ]
[ Sense 2-3: Date: 1800-1900 ; Origin: Probably from bate 'to beat the wings' (13-20 centuries) , from Old French batre 'to hit' ]
1 . [intransitive and transitive] to hit the ball with a bat in ↑ cricket or ↑ baseball
2 . not bat an eye/eyelid informal to not seem to be shocked, surprised, or embarrassed:
They started talking about sex, but she didn’t bat an eyelid.
3 . bat your eyes/eyelashes if a woman bats her eyes, she opens and closes them several times quickly, in order to look attractive to men
4 . go to bat for somebody American English informal to help and support someone
5 . be batting a thousand American English informal to be very successful:
She’s been batting a thousand since she got that job.
bat something ↔ around phrasal verb informal
to discuss various ideas or suggestions