{
    "term": "bat",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "b2",
    "image": "data/images/sp/sports_racket.png",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a piece of wood with a handle, made in various shapes and sizes, and used for hitting the ball in games such as baseball, cricket and table tennis",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a **baseball/cricket bat**"
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Sports: ball and racket sports"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["baseball", "cricket", "table-tennis"],
                "verb + bat": ["grip", "hold", "carry"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "an animal like a mouse with wings that flies and feeds at night (= it is nocturnal). There are many types of bat.",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [],
            "topics": ["Animals"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["fruit", "vampire", "etc."],
                "bat + verb": ["flutter", "fly", "hang"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "trying to hit the ball with a bat",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "It's his first time at bat in the major leagues."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Sports: ball and racket sports"]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "not able to see well",
            "labels": "(humorous)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "She’s as blind as a bat without her glasses."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "very fast",
            "labels": "(old-fashioned, informal)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "She was driving like a bat out of hell."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "if you do something off your own bat, it is your own idea and you do it without help or support from anyone else",
            "labels": "(British English, informal)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "She made the suggestions entirely off her own bat."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "immediately; without delay",
            "labels": "(especially North American English, informal)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "We both liked each other right off the bat."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Foreign aid is one of the issues we have to deal with right off the bat."
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/bæt/",
                "audio": "ba/bat/bat__gb_4.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/bæt/",
                "audio": "ba/bat/bat__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "noun sense 1 late Old English batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perhaps partly from Old French batte, from battre ‘to strike’. noun sense 2 late 16th cent.: alteration, perhaps by association with medieval Latin batta, blacta, of Middle English bakke, of Scandinavian origin."
}