What does bat mean?
Definitions for bat
bætbat
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word bat.
Princeton's WordNet
bat, chiropterannoun
nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate
bat, at-batnoun
(baseball) a turn trying to get a hit
"he was at bat when it happened"; "he got four hits in four at-bats"
squash racket, squash racquet, batnoun
a small racket with a long handle used for playing squash
cricket bat, batnoun
the club used in playing cricket
"a cricket bat has a narrow handle and a broad flat end for hitting"
batverb
a club used for hitting a ball in various games
batverb
strike with, or as if with a baseball bat
"bat the ball"
bat, flutterverb
wink briefly
"bat one's eyelids"
batverb
have a turn at bat
"Jones bats first, followed by Martinez"
batverb
use a bat
"Who's batting?"
cream, bat, clobber, drub, thrash, lickverb
beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight
"We licked the other team on Sunday!"
Wiktionary
batnoun
A club made of wood or aluminium used for striking the ball in sports such as baseball, softball and cricket.
batnoun
A turn at hitting the ball with a bat in a game.
bat
The piece of wood on which the spinner places the coins and then uses for throwing them. (Reference Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, 1966, chapter XI section 3, page 242.)
batverb
to hit with a bat.
batverb
to take a turn at hitting a ball with a bat in sports like cricket, baseball and softball, as opposed to fielding.
bat
to strike or swipe as though with a bat
The cat batted at the toy.
batverb
to flutter: bat one's eyelashes.
batnoun
packsaddle
Etymology: From baitaz. Related to Old Norse beit. bátr (Icelandic: bátur) is a borrowing from ; German Boot and Dutch boot are loans from the descendant.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Batnoun
A heavy stick or club.
Etymology: bat, Sax. This word seems to have given rise to a great number of words in many languages; as, battre, Fr. to beat; baton, battle, beat, batty, and others. It probably signified a weapon that did execution by its weight, in opposition to a sharp edge; whence whirlbat and brickbat.
A handsome bat he held,
On which he leaned, as one far in eld. Hubberd’s Tale.They were fried in arm chairs, and their bones broken with bats. George Hakewill, on Providence.
Batnoun
An animal having the body of a mouse and the wings of a bird; not with feathers, but with a sort of skin which is extended. It lays no eggs, but brings forth its young alive, and suckles them. It never grows tame, feeds upon flies, insects, and fatty substances, such as candles, oil, and cheese; and appears only in the summer evenings, when the weather is fine. Augustin Calmet
Etymology: the etymology unknown.
When owls do cry,
On the bat ’s back I do fly. William Shakespeare, Tempest.But then grew reason dark; that fair star no more
Could the fair forms of good and truth discern;
Bats they became who eagles were before;
And this they got by their desire to learn. John Davies.Some animals are placed in the middle betwixt two kinds, as bats, which have something of birds and beasts. John Locke.
Where swallows in the winter season keep,
And how the drowsy bat and dormouse sleep. John Gay.
Wikipedia
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more manoeuvrable than birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium. The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is 29–34 millimetres (1 1⁄8–1 3⁄8 inches) in length, 150 mm (6 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g (1⁄16–3⁄32 oz) in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes and the giant golden-crowned flying fox, Acerodon jubatus, which can weigh 1.6 kg (3 1⁄2 lb) and have a wingspan of 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,400 species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats, and the echolocating microbats. But more recent evidence has supported dividing the order into Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, with megabats as members of the former along with several species of microbats. Many bats are insectivores, and most of the rest are frugivores (fruit-eaters) or nectarivores (nectar-eaters). A few species feed on animals other than insects; for example, the vampire bats feed on blood. Most bats are nocturnal, and many roost in caves or other refuges; it is uncertain whether bats have these behaviours to escape predators. Bats are present throughout the world, with the exception of extremely cold regions. They are important in their ecosystems for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds; many tropical plants depend entirely on bats for these services. Bats provide humans with some direct benefits, at the cost of some disadvantages. On the benefits side, bat dung has been and in many places still is mined as guano from caves and used as fertiliser. Bats consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides and other insect management measures. They are sometimes numerous enough and close enough to human settlements to serve as tourist attractions, and they are used as food across Asia and the Pacific Rim. On the disadvantages side, fruit bats are frequently considered pests by fruit growers. Due to their physiology, bats are one type of animal that acts as a natural reservoir of many pathogens, such as rabies; and since they are highly mobile, social, and long-lived, they can readily spread disease among themselves. If humans interact with bats, these traits become potentially dangerous to humans. Depending on the culture, bats may be symbolically associated with positive traits, such as protection from certain diseases or risks, rebirth, or long life, but in the West, bats are popularly associated with darkness, malevolence, witchcraft, vampires, and death.
ChatGPT
bat
A bat is a nocturnal mammal in the order Chiroptera, characterized by its ability to fly, a unique trait amongst mammals. They have wings that are a thin membrane of skin stretched between elongated fingers. Bats are often associated with echolocation, a navigational ability that allows them to hunt prey and navigate dark caves by emitting sounds and interpreting the echo. They are also known for their diet which typically consists of insects, fruits, nectar, or in some cases, small mammals or blood depending on the species. Bats play crucial roles in ecosystems such as pollination and pest control. On the other hand, a bat could also refer to a type of sports equipment, specifically a rounded, often wooden or metal rod that is used to strike a ball in various sports such as baseball, cricket, or table tennis.
Webster Dictionary
Batnoun
a large stick; a club; specifically, a piece of wood with one end thicker or broader than the other, used in playing baseball, cricket, etc
Batnoun
shale or bituminous shale
Batnoun
a sheet of cotton used for filling quilts or comfortables; batting
Batnoun
a part of a brick with one whole end
Batverb
to strike or hit with a bat or a pole; to cudgel; to beat
Batverb
to use a bat, as in a game of baseball
Batnoun
one of the Cheiroptera, an order of flying mammals, in which the wings are formed by a membrane stretched between the elongated fingers, legs, and tail. The common bats are small and insectivorous. See Cheiroptera and Vampire
Wikidata
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, can only glide for short distances. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium. Bats represent about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruit-eating megabats, or flying foxes, and the more highly specialized and echolocating microbats. About 70% of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the fish-eating bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being hematophagous. Bats are present throughout most of the world, performing vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats for the distribution of their seeds. Bats are important in eating insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides. The smallest bat is the Kitti's hog-nosed bat, measuring 29–34 mm in length, 15 cm across the wings and 2–2.6 g in mass. It is also arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan shrew being the other contender. The largest species of bat are a few species of Pteropus and the giant golden-crowned flying fox with a weight up to 1.6 kg and wingspan up to 1.7 m.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Bat
bat, n. a heavy stick: a flat club for striking the ball in cricket, a club for base-balls, a batsman: the clown's sword in a pantomime: a piece of brick: (slang) rate of speed, style.—v.i. to use the bat in cricket:—pr.p. bat′ting; pa.p. bat′ted.—ns. Bat′ter, Bats′man, one who wields the bat at cricket, &c.; Bat′ting, the management of a bat in playing games: cotton fibre prepared in sheets. [Perh. from A.S. bat (a doubtful form), prob. Celt. bat, staff.]
Bat
bat, n. an animal with a body like a mouse, but which flies on wings attached mainly to its fore-feet, but extending along its sides to the hind-feet. [M. E. bakke, apparently from Scand.; cf. Dan. aftenbakke, evening-bat.]
The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz
BAT
Senior partner of Bat, Ball & Co., and never found without the rest of the firm, as it takes several high-balls to make one short bat.
Dictionary of Nautical Terms
bat
An Anglo-Saxon term for boat or vessel. Also a broad-bodied thoracic fish, with a small head, and distinguished by its large triangular dorsal and anal fins, which exceed the length of the body. It is the Chætodon vespertilio of naturalists.
Suggested Resources
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The bat symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the bat symbol and its characteristic.
BAT
What does BAT stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the BAT acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.
Surnames Frequency by Census Records
BAT
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Bat is ranked #123796 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
The Bat surname appeared 139 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Bat.
38.8% or 54 total occurrences were White.
38.1% or 53 total occurrences were Asian.
12.2% or 17 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
7.9% or 11 total occurrences were Black.
Matched Categories
British National Corpus
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'bat' in Nouns Frequency: #2614
Anagrams for bat »
tab
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of bat in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of bat in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5
Examples of bat in a Sentence
We're not an athletic bunch. But John( John Legend) is so proud, everyone's like' Drop the bat !' You have to explain every part. Like, of course, he wouldn't know to drop the bat. But it's so sweet.
He's a pretty funky guy, i always thought he was a tough at-bat. When you don't get to see him often, he can make it tough on you.
We've been seeing cases in people in United States who seem to not really be aware that rabies can be transmitted by wildlife, especially bats, a lot of times, bat bites and scratches are very tiny. So a lot of people will try to hold a bat and they don't realize that bat has bitten.
When practice begins, those memories come back, i can’t wait to get back up to bat.
Since taking on the role of chief executive five months ago, I have been clear that I wanted to make BAT a stronger, simpler and faster organization, my goal is to oversee a step change in New Category growth.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for bat
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
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"bat." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/bat>.
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