bat

bat a thousand be enjoying great success. US informal

☞ The metaphor comes from baseball, where someone who was literally 'batting a thousand' would have a perfect batting average.

2002DVD Verdict Their first film, Suture, garnered them serious critical acclaim and with The Deep End, they are now batting a thousand.

blind as a bat: seeblind.

carry your bat: seecarry.

have bats in the (or your) belfry be eccentric or crazy. informal

☞ This expression refers to the way in which bats in an enclosed space fly about wildly if they are disturbed.

c.1901G. W. PeckPeck's Red-Headed Boy They all thought a crazy man with bats in his belfry had got loose.

like a bat out of hell very fast and wildly. informal

1995Patrick McCabeThe Dead School Like a bat out of hell that Joe Buck gets on out of the apartment and doesn't stop running till he reaches Times Square.

not bat an eyelid (or eye) show no emotional or other reaction. informal

☞ Bat in this sense is perhaps a dialect and US variant of the verb bate meaning 'lower or let down'. The variant not blink an eye is also found.

2012BenSilent Words Speak Loudest When a man wearing nothing but socks and a hat walks on stage … Kay does not bat an eyelid, simply dropping his trousers and carrying on with the song.

off your own bat at your own instigation; spontaneously. British

☞ The bat referred to in this phrase is a cricket bat.

2002Sydney Morning Herald They seem oblivious of the fact … that it was Democrats' policy at the time, not something that Lees did off her own bat but something that … the party went into the election supporting.

right off the bat at the very beginning; straight away. North American