bat
verb/bæt/
/bæt/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they bat | /bæt/ /bæt/ |
| he / she / it bats | /bæts/ /bæts/ |
| past simple batted | /ˈbætɪd/ /ˈbætɪd/ |
| past participle batted | /ˈbætɪd/ /ˈbætɪd/ |
| -ing form batting | /ˈbætɪŋ/ /ˈbætɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] bat (something) to hit a ball with a bat, especially in a game of baseball or cricket
- He bats very well.
- Who's batting first for the Orioles?
Extra Examples- He went to bat, two runs down, with his team about to lose.
- Hick went in to bat after Hussain.
- India won the toss and put England in to bat.
- Smith was first to bat for Warwickshire.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + bat- go in to
- go to
- put somebody in to
- …
- for
- [transitive] bat something + adv./prep. to hit something small that is flying through the air
- He batted the wasp away.
Word Originverb late Old English batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perhaps partly from Old French batte, from battre ‘to strike’. bat your eyes/eyelashes, not bat an eyelid. late 19th cent. (originally US): from dialect and US bat ‘to wink, blink’, variant of obsolete bate ‘to flutter’.
Idioms
See bat in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybat your eyes/eyelashes
- to open and close your eyes quickly, in a way that is supposed to be attractive
bat a thousand
- (North American English, informal) to be very successful
- He’s made another sale? He’s really batting a thousand!
go to bat for somebody
- (North American English, informal) to give somebody help and support
- She really went to bat for me.
not bat an eyelid (British English)
(North American English not bat an eye)
- (informal) to show no surprise or concern when something unusual happens
- She didn't bat an eyelid when I told her my news.
Check pronunciation:
bat