[bat], (Noun)

Definitions:
- an implement with a handle and a solid surface, typically of wood, used for hitting the ball in games such as cricket, baseball, and table tennis
(e.g: a cricket bat)


Phrases:
- bat a thousand
- bat for the other team
- go to bat for
- off one's own bat
- right off the bat

Origin:
late Old English batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perhaps partly from Old French batte, from battre ‘to strike’

[bat], (Verb)

Definitions:
- (of a sports team or player) take the role of hitting rather than throwing the ball
(e.g: Australia reached 263 for 4 after choosing to bat)

- hit at (someone or something) with the flat of one's hand
(e.g: he batted the flies away)


Phrases:
- bat a thousand
- bat for the other team
- go to bat for
- off one's own bat
- right off the bat

Origin:
late Old English batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perhaps partly from Old French batte, from battre ‘to strike’

[bat], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a mainly nocturnal mammal capable of sustained flight, with membranous wings that extend between the fingers and limbs

- a woman regarded as unattractive or unpleasant
(e.g: some deranged old bat)


Phrases:
- have bats in the belfry
- like a bat out of hell

Origin:
late 16th century: alteration, perhaps by association with medieval Latin batta, blacta, of Middle English bakke, of Scandinavian origin

[bat], (Verb)

Definitions:
- flutter (one's eyelashes or eyelids), typically in a flirtatious manner
(e.g: she batted her long dark eyelashes at him)


Phrases:
- not bat an eye
- without batting an eye
- without batting an eyelid

Origin:
late 19th century (originally US): from dialect and US bat ‘to wink, blink’, variant of obsolete bate ‘to flutter’