Forms: 3 (dat. sing.) botte, (pl.) botten, 3–5 bottes, 3–6 battes; 5–6 batte, 6–8 batt, 4– bat. [As the nom. sing. does not occur in 13th c., it is uncertain whether it was bat or batte, and thus whether it was an adoption of OF. batte (partly identical in sense, referred by Littré to battre to beat), or represented an OE. *bat (fem.) ‘fustis,’ alleged by Somner, from an unknown source. The forms in Layamon rather favor the latter; but in any case some of the senses are from F. batte. The supposed OE. *bat is by some referred to a Celtic origin: cf. Ir. and Gael. bat, bata staff, cudgel. The development and relations of the senses are obscure: some of them appear to be from the verb, and some may be immediately due to onomatopœia, from the sound of a solid, slightly dull, blow: cf. pat. Thus there may be two or three originally distinct words, though no longer satisfactorily separable.]
I. A stick or stout piece of wood.
1. A stick, a club, a staff for support and defence. (In 1387 applied to a crosier.) arch. Still dial. (Kent, Sussex, etc.) = staff, walking-stick.
c. 1205. Lay., 21593. Þa botten [1250 battes] heo up heouen.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 366. Us forto buruwen from þes deofles botte.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 78. And made heom fyghte with battes.
c. 1320. Syr Bevis, 391. He nemeth is bat and forth a goth.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 381. Forto swere vppon eny of þilke belles and gold battes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 26. Batte, staffe, fustis.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 179. As to a thef ye come oute, with swerdes & battes to take me.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 596. This was clepyd of the comon people the parlyament of battes … for proclamacyons were made, yt men shulde leue theyr swerdes &… the people toke great battes & stauys.
1555. Fardle Facions, App. 327. Let there bee giuen vnto hym by the commune Sergeaunt of the batte .xxxix. stripes with a waster.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 217. A handsome bat he held, On which he leaned.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 165. Make you ready your stiffe bats and clubs.
1655. Gouge, Comm. Heb. xi. 35. Τύμπανον … signifieth a ‘bat,’ or a ‘staff.’
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 631. He headed all the rabble of a town, And finish’d ’em with bats.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxi. I have given up … my bat for a sword.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 103. Called … the parliament of bats or bludgeons.
† 2. ? A balk of timber. Batt’s end apparently = mast-head. Obs. or dial.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 42. Though the corne be laide upon Battes in the floores.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Royal Navy, 4. Necessaries belonging to shipping, even from the Batts end to the very Kilson of a Ship.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 211. Neat Timber, a fift part (which is sufficient in such large batts,) being allow’d for the wast of rind, chipps, &c.
3. The wooden implement with rounded handle and flattened blade used to strike or ‘bat’ the ball in cricket. (The most common mod. sense.)
1706. Phillips, Bat … a kind of Club to strike a Ball with, at the Play call’d Cricket. [So in Bailey, 1731, etc.]
1770. J. Love, Cricket, 3. He weighs the well-turned Bat’s experienc’d Force.
1807. Crabbe, Village, I. 336. The bat, the wicket, were his labours all.
1850. in Cricket. Man., 100. Pilch scored sixty-one, and brought out his bat.
b. short for batter, batsman.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 13. 306. McJug … one of our best bats, went to the wicket first.
c. Hence the phrase, Off his own bat, in reference to the score made by a player’s own hits; fig. solely by his own exertions, by himself.
1845. Syd. Smith, Fragm. Irish Ch., Wks. II. 340/1. He had no revenues but what he got off his own bat.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 13. 305. One of our adversaries scored 70 off his own bat.
1865. Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 667. It is a mistake … to suppose that Lord Palmerston did everything off his own bat after 1834.
4. The ‘sword of wood’ or light lath wand of Harlequin in pantomimes. [Directly from F. ‘batte, sabre de bois d’arlequin’ (Littré).]
1859. Illustr. Lond. News, 8 Jan. Harlequin’s wonder-working bat.
5. dial. (Kent, etc.): The wooden handle or stick of an implement, e.g., of a scythe.
6. dial. (Herefordsh., etc.): A wooden implement for breaking clods of earth. [So F. batte.]
II. A lump, a piece of certain substances; a mass, dull-sounding, or formed by beating.
† 7. A lump, piece, bit. Obs. in general sense.
c. 1340. Alexander (Stev.), 4166. Quare flaggis of the fell snawe · fell fra þe heuen … a-brade … as battis ere of wolle.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIX. 92. Þe fader of heuene … bad hit be [of] a bat of erþe · a man and a mayde.
8. esp. A piece of a brick having one end entire.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 240 b. Battz and great rubbrysshe … to fyll vp in the myddell of the wall.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 50. Let him get his foundation cleared, and his Bricks and Bats laid up.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 261. Lay a three quarter Bat at the Quine in the stretching course. [See BRICKBAT.]
9. A kind of sun-dried brick.
1816. Southey, in Q. Rev., XV. 214. Preparing bats,—a sort of bricks made of clay and straw, well beaten together, 18 inches long, 12 wide, 4 deep, not burnt, but dried in the sun.
10. A brick-shaped peat.
1846. Clarke, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. II. 517. The dried ‘peat bats,’ or brick-shaped turf, used for fuel.
11. Shale interstratified between seams of coal, iron-ore, etc. Cf. BASS sb.4
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., Substances call’d partings … of consistence between an earth and a coal, or soft bat.
1712. H. Bellers, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 543. Those Substances, which divide the Strata of Coals and Iron Oars from each other, are called Bats by the Miners.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxv. 474. Black ‘bat,’ a dull, compact, bituminous shale, which sounds under the hammer like wood.
12. A felted mass of fur, or of hair and wool in hat-making: often spelt BATT.
1836. Scenes Commerce, 195. The whole mass … is called a batt; a second batt is added to it; and by dint of pressure … the two batts become one.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 294. A batt is quantity sufficient for making half the thickness of one hat.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 784. The bat or capade thus formed is rendered compact by pressing it down with the hardening skin.
13. A sheet of cotton wadding used for filling quilts; batting.
III. A stroke.
14. A firm blow as with a staff or club. Cf. BAT v.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 296. That xal be asayd be this batte, What thou, Ihesus? ho ȝaff the that?
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 432. Sum gat ane bat that breissit all thair bonis.
1566. Drant, Horace’ Sat., I. i. A ij. The souldyer that doth deale the battes and makes his foes to flye.
1674. P. Whalley, Establ. Relig., 22. To have a Batt at the Pope with the Butt end of a Dominican.
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Bat, ‘It gets more bats than bites,’ said of the dog that gets more blows than food.
15. dial. and slang, Beat, rate of stroke or speed, pace; in Sc. dial. rate, manner, style.
1808. Jamieson, s.v., [Getting on] about the auld bat.
1824. Craven Dial., 49. There com by me, at a feaful girt bat, a par o’shay and four.
1877. Peacock, Manley (Linc.) Gloss., s.v., They do go at a strange bat on them railroads.
1880. Daily Tel., 11 March. Going off at a lively bat of 34 … the boat travelled at a good pace.
V. Comb., as bat-ball, a ball to be struck with a bat; batman, one who carries a bludgeon, a clubman. Also BAT-FOWL, -ER. -ING.
1876. Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. x. 241. Moons are no more bounds to spiritual power than bat-balls.
1833. Extracts as to Administ. Poor Laws, 26. The batmen, so called from the provincial term of bat, for a bludgeon which they use.
