bats

Multiple Entries:
  bats    bat  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bats/bats/

▶adjective informal, dated (of a person) mad.

– origin early 20th cent.: from the phr. have bats in the belfry (see bat2).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bat1

▶noun

• 1 an implement with a handle and a solid surface, used in sports such as cricket or baseball for hitting the ball.

• 2 a slab on which pottery is formed, dried, or fired.

▶verb (bats, batting, batted)

• 1 (in sport) take the role of hitting rather than throwing the ball.

• 2 hit with the flat of one's hand.

• 3 (bat something around/about) informal casually discuss an idea or proposal.

• 4 (bat around/about) informal travel widely, frequently, or casually.

– phrases
off one's own bat Brit. informal at one's own instigation.
right off the bat N. Amer. informal at the very beginning.

– origin OE batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perh. partly from OFr. batte, from battre ‘to strike’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bat2

▶noun

• 1 a mainly nocturnal mammal capable of sustained flight, with membranous wings that extend between the fingers and limbs. [Order Chiroptera: many species.]

• 2 (old bat) informal an unattractive and unpleasant woman.

– phrases
have bats in the belfry informal be eccentric or mad.

– origin C16: alt., perh. by assoc. with med. L. batta, blacta, of ME bakke, of Scand. origin; sense 2 is from bat, a sl. term for ‘prostitute’, or from battleaxe.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bat3

▶verb (bats, batting, batted) flutter (one's eyelashes).

– phrases
not bat (or without batting) an eyelid (or N. Amer. eye) informal show (or showing) no surprise or concern.

– origin C19 (orig. US): from dial. and US bat ‘to wink, blink’, var. of obs. bate ‘to flutter’.