bat

1. 1.

   strike with, or as if with a baseball bat

   “bat the ball”

   Broaderhit

   Narrowerswitch-hit

   baseball

2. 2.

   wink briefly

   “bat one's eyelids”

   Synonymsflutter

   Broaderblink
3. 3.

   have a turn at bat

   “Jones bats first, followed by Martinez”

   Broaderhit

   baseball

4. 4.

   use a bat

   “Who's batting?”

   Broaderhit

   baseball

5. 5.

   beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight

   “We licked the other team on Sunday!”

   Synonymscreamclobberdrubthrashlick

   Broaderbeat

Other forms of bat

plural

bats·

past tense or participle

batted

present participle

batting

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about bat

What does bat mean?

bat means "nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in bat?

bat has 1 syllable: bat. In IPA it is /ˈbæt/.

What is another word for bat?

Close synonyms include chiropteran, at-bat, squash racket, squash racquet, cricket bat. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bat a common word?

bat is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with bat?

4 words rhyme with bat. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.