• enPR: băt, IPA: /bæt/

bat (plural bats)

1. Any of the flying mammals of the order Chiroptera, usually small and nocturnal, insectivorous or frugivorous.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.

   • 2012, Suemedha Sood, (bbc.co.uk) Travelwise: Texas love bats ↗ [sic]

     As well as being worth millions of dollars to the Texan agriculture industry, these mammals are worth millions of dollars to the state’s tourism industry. Texas is home to the world’s largest known bat colony (in Comal County), and the world’s largest urban bat colony (in Austin). Bat watching is a common activity, with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department offering more bat-viewing sites than anywhere else in the US.

2. (derogatory) An old woman.

• (flying mammal) chiropter, chiropteran, flindermouse, flittermouse, fluttermouse, flying-mouse, rearmouse/reremouse

• French: chauve-souris, chauvesouris
• German: Fledermaus
• Italian: pipistrello
• Portuguese: morcego
• Russian: лету́чая мышь
• Spanish: murciélago

bat (plural bats)

1. A club made of wood or aluminium used for striking the ball in sports such as baseball, softball and cricket.
2. A turn at hitting the ball with a bat in a game.

   You've been in for ages. Can I have a bat now?

3. (two-up) The piece of wood on which the spinner places the coins and then uses for throwing them.
4. (mining) Shale or bituminous shale.
5. A sheet of cotton used for filling quilts or comfortables; batting.
6. A part of a brick with one whole end.
7. A stroke; a sharp blow.
8. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A stroke of work.
9. (informal) Rate of motion; speed.

   • a vast host of fowl […] making at full bat for the North Sea.

10. (US, slang, dated) A spree; a jollification.
11. (UK, Scotland, dialect) Manner; rate; condition; state of health.

• (two-up) kip, stick, kylie, lannet

• French: batte, bâton (baseball)
• German: Schläger, (colloquial) Keule
• Italian: mazza, racchetta
• Portuguese: bastão, taco
• Russian: би́та
• Spanish: bate, bat (baseball)

bat (bats, present participle batting; past and past participle batted)

1. (transitive) To hit with a bat or (figuratively) as if with a bat.

   He batted the ball away with a satisfying thwack.

   We batted a few ideas around.

2. (intransitive) To take a turn at hitting a ball with a bat in sports like cricket, baseball and softball, as opposed to fielding.
3. (intransitive) To strike or swipe as though with a bat.

   The cat batted at the toy.

• German: schlagen
• Portuguese: tacar
• Spanish: batear

bat (bats, present participle batting; past and past participle batted)

1. (transitive) To flutter

   bat one's eyelashes.

2. (US, UK, dialect) To wink.
3. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To bate or flutter, as a hawk.
4. (intransitive, usually with 'around' or 'about') To flit quickly from place to place.

   I've spent all week batting around the country.

bat (plural bats)

1. (obsolete) A packsaddle.

bat

1. Dated form of baht#English|baht (“Thai currency”).

1. (sports) Abbreviation of Bathurst#English|Bathurst.

bat

1. Initialism of best available technology: a principle applying to regulations on limiting pollutant discharges.

• BATNEEC