Noun: bat
Sample Sentences
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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. [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, page 01:]
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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. [2012, Suemedha Sood, (bbc.co.uk) Travelwise: Texas love bats [sic]]
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"Isn't it lovely?" I smiled and thought: "Yes it is. It's also a Blackbird, you silly old bat! [2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 196:]
Nouns inflected like bat
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Dialectal variant of Middle English bakke, balke, of North Germanic origin (akin to dialectal Swedish natt-batta). Perhaps compare Old Norse (leðr)blaka (literally “(leather) flapper”), from leðr + blaka (“to flap”). Compare also Old Swedish natbakka, Old Danish nathbakkæ. See: Middle English Nouns '
bakke,balke', Old Norse Nouns '
leðrblaka'.
Verbs referencing "bat"
Danish Nouns
bat, French Nouns
batte.