| / English Dictionary |
BATS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Informal or slang terms for mentally irregular
Example:
it used to drive my husband balmy
Synonyms:
whacky; wacky; round the bend; nutty; nuts; loopy; loony; loco; kooky; kookie; haywire; fruity; dotty; daft; crackers; cracked; buggy; bonkers; batty; bats; barmy; balmy; around the bend
Classified under:
Similar:
insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (third person singular) of the verb bat
Context examples:
The migration and reproduction of birds, fish, amphibians, insects and bats can be disrupted, and plants can have abnormally extended growing periods.
(Study: Earth’s Night Skies Getting Brighter, VOA)
I dreamt another dream, sir: that Thornfield Hall was a dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owls.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Emerging fungal pathogens pose a greater threat to biodiversity than any other parasitic group, scientists say, causing population declines of amphibians, bats, corals, bees and snakes.
(Amphibians can acquire resistance to deadly fungus, NSF)
To have seen the mother and son, like two great bats hanging over the whole house, and darkening it with their ugly forms, made me so uncomfortable, that I would rather have remained downstairs, knitting and all, than gone to bed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
From that position, they are able to grab the bats in mid-air.
(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)
I found him asleep twice when I awoke; but I did not fear to go to sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something napped almost angrily against the window-panes.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The disease is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which results in a skin infection, a distinctive white growth around the muzzles and on the wings of bats.
(Hibernation season over, will disease-ridden bats emerge from caves and mines this spring?, NSF)
The findings offer hope that amphibians and other wild animals threatened by fungal pathogens—such as bats, bees and snakes—might be capable of acquiring resistance to fungi and so might be rescued by management approaches based on herd immunity.
(Amphibians can acquire resistance to deadly fungus, NSF)
Vladimir Dinets, who led the study, said the boas hang from the ceiling of cave entrances at dusk and dawn, when bats either enter or leave the cave.
(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)
One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at her in the night, and what with his gorge and the vein left open, there wasn't enough blood in her to let her stand up, and I had to put a bullet through her as she lay.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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