bat

1. an implement with a handle and a solid surface, typically of wood, used for hitting the ball in games such as cricket, baseball, and table tennis.

   a cricket bat

1. (of a sports team or player) take the role of hitting rather than throwing the ball.

   Australia reached 263 for 4 after choosing to bat

2. hit at (someone or something) with the flat of one's hand.

   he batted the flies away

late Old English batt ‘club, stick, staff’, perhaps partly from Old French batte, from battre ‘to strike’.

1. a mainly nocturnal mammal capable of sustained flight, with membranous wings that extend between the fingers and limbs.
2. a woman regarded as unattractive or unpleasant.

   some deranged old bat

late 16th century: alteration, perhaps by association with medieval Latin batta, blacta, of Middle English bakke, of Scandinavian origin.

1. flutter (one's eyelashes or eyelids), typically in a flirtatious manner.

   she batted her long dark eyelashes at him

late 19th century (originally US): from dialect and US bat ‘to wink, blink’, variant of obsolete bate ‘to flutter’.