Idioms

bats

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bat

1. dated slang An indulgence of wild or celebratory activity; a spree or binge. Primarily heard in US. Me and my pals were on a bat in the Big Apple, see, when Tommy the Toon gets picked up by the fuzz. What a predicament! Of course your head is pounding—you spent your whole weekend on a drinking bat. When are you finally going to settle down and stop going on these weekend bats in the city?
2. slang A speed or rate of motion. We were driving at a fair bat when we hit a patch of ice and spun out on the road. He came running toward us at full bat. At the sound of police sirens, everyone bolted out of the party at full bat.
3. slang A foolish, irritating, or eccentric old person, usually a woman. Used especially in the phrase "old bat." Ugh, what is that old bat complaining about today? Oh, I don't listen to anything the old bat next door has to say anymore. A: "What are you doing down here?" B: "The boss asked me to help some old bat with her walker."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

bats

1. and batty mod. crazy. You are driving me batty! You are bats if you think I would ever wear a haircut like that.
2. and batty mod. alcohol intoxicated; confused and drunk. The guy was bats—stewed to his ears. He was a bit batty, but he’d been drinking since noon, so no one was surprised.
3. and the bats n. the delirium tremens. (Always with the.) My buddy is shaking because of a slight case of the bats.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
There is a decline in bats globally, as they are nowadays often disturbed in their caves by people whose activities encroach on their habitats.
Tallahassee, FL - August 6, 2019 - To protect Tallahassee homes and local bat species, the wildlife removal experts at Critter Control(c) of Tallahassee warn residents to comply with regulations during bat maternity season.
While eastern small-footed bats and northern long-eared baLs (Myotis septentrionalis) have been observed roosting in bridge barrier devices, this behavior has not been documented for gray bats (MacGregor and Riser, 1998: Thomson, 2013).
Roeut Savorn, a member of the recently established community, said there were approximately five to six million bats living in six bat caves in Banan district in 1999.
The fruit bats have become one of the top tourist attractions on the island, which is only about 10 minutes by boat from Davao City.
'The key is to help people understand and appreciate the value of bats,' Bayless said.
Throughout the book, Laidlaw has included the profiles of 10 'Bat Citizens'--young people participating in citizen science to help protect bat populations.
34 Payton Lobdell * Bats R/Throws R * Huntington Beach, Calif.
Cornelison's team later captured and treated bats from caves in Kentucky and Missouri.
Given the low levels of bat activity at the site on this particular night (these were the only 2 bats captured) and the spatial and temporal proximity between the net in which the Hoary Bat was captured and our initial observation of the interaction, we strongly suspect that the captured bats were the 2 interacting individuals and that the injuries observed on each bat were a result of the observed interaction.
Achieving GFAS Accreditation means Bat World Sanctuary meets the comprehensive and rigorous definition of a true sanctuary and as such provides humane and responsible care for bats and meets the rigorous standards for operations, administration, and veterinary care established by GFAS.
Most people assume that all bats are nasty little bats.
The net result of this decline is that all British bats and their roosts are now protected by law.
That tree was inhabited by small insect-eating free-tailed bats of a species (Mops condylurus) that previous research has suggested may harbor Ebola, Fabian Leendertz of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and colleagues report in the January EMBO Molecular Medicine.
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