Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bat n.2

[SE bat, a club; to hit]

1. (US/Aus.) the penis; thus (Aus.) go off the bat, to masturbate; bat and balls, the penis and testicles; batter, a man with a large penis; one of a number of terms equating the penis with a stick or rod.

[UK]Nocturnal Revels 2 61: His Grace thought it a disgrace to have any connexion [...] with anyone that was not a profesed cricketer. This [...] accounts for his late intrigue with Lady D—y, who [...] can handle a batt and knock the balls about, with almost any Peer in England.
[US]G. Milburn ‘They Can’t Do That’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 233: And a fly-ball comes and drags you out / And fans you with a loaded bat.
[US] ‘Lou Gehrig Goes West’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 118: I’ll have this bat of mine up again and we’ll play another innings.
Gomez & Elliot ‘Don’t Come Too Soon’ 🎵 Get a grip on your bat and smack a few balls / Come on over / But please don’t come too soon.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 16: balls and bat The testicles and penis.
[US] in R.G. Reisner Graffiti 109: Men with short bats stand close to the plate.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 28: bat 1. large penis. [...] batter a man who has a [sic] anatomically large organ.

2. a hard blow [note 14C–17C bat, a hard blow with a club or staff].

[UK] ‘The Disasters of Poor Jerry Blossom’ Universal Songster I 21/2: A lass ga ma a nation hard bat e the chops.
[US]F. St. Clair Six Days in the Metropolis 28: I give her a bat side of the head, but you don’t call that assaulting her, do ye?
[US]T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 465: ‘Get out of this!’ cried the officer, swinging his club. ‘I’ll give you a bat on the sconce.’.
E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Oct. 600/1: ‘What he wants is a bat side th’ ’ead when he starts yowlin’ fer things’.
[UK]J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 62: She made one rush and gi’m a bat / And shook him like a dog a rat.
[UK]J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 697: The Canadians live over the fence from us, but you mix up a Canuck with a Yank in your remarks and you’ll get a bat in the eye.
[US]J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 99: Mame gave him a bat in the snoot.
[US]E.W. Calder ‘Too Many Diamonds’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 A guy can take a hell of a bat over the dome if he’s got one of these things on.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 11: I give you a bat in the head.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 326: She steps oot ay line, she gits a bat in the mooth, that’s it.

3. a thug, a ‘hard man’.

[US]M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 8: A doggery of the regular old-fashioned, drink, gamble, rob and fight sort — a low place, known to all the hard bats in the State.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Bat, a denizen of the criminal underworld.

4. (US) a complaint or a comment.

[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 287: One more bat out of you [...] and it’ll be curtains for you, punk.

5. (US prison) a whip used for discipline.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 5/2: Bat, a whip used in prison.
[US](con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 6: Bat – a vicious leather whip.

6. (Aus.) a riding-whip.

[Aus]Referee (Sydney) 15 Mar. 2/6: American jockeys are frequently accused of making excessive use of their whips, ‘but [...] this is rarely true of the few who last sufficiently to become familiar with their vocation. A case in point is that of ‘Sonny’ Workman [...] has learned, when and how to use his bat. When it comes to whip riders, however, Carol Shilling undoubtedly is entitled to the palm.
[Aus]Baker Drum.

7. (US prison) a trial.

[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 790: bat – A criminal trial. ‘Go to Bat’.

8. (Polari) a shoe, thus in fig. sense, a policeman on pattern of flatfoot n. (3); thus as v. to dance .

[UK]P. Baker Fabulosa 289/1: bat, batts, bates 1. a shoe. 2. to shuffle or dance on-stage.
[UK]R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 38: [F]ash bats and sharpering-omis were after us, those evil eagle-eeked addle-plots who cruised the city.

In compounds

bat-boy (n.)

(US gay) a hitchhiker who allows a homosexual driver to fellate him in exchange for a ride.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 28: bat-boy cross-country hitchhiker or young soldier who will allow a homosexual driver to suck him off in exchange or trade for a ride.
bat material (n.)

(Aus. prison) pornography.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Bat material. Erotic literature used for masturbation. From ‘go off the bat’. See ‘stick book’.
batsucker (n.)

(Aus.) a fellator or fellatrix.

personal communication.

SE in slang uses, mostly based on baseball/cricket imagery

In compounds

batbrain (n.) (also bathead) [sfx -brain/-head sfx (1)]

(Aus./US) a fool or a crazy person; thus batbrained, batheaded, adj., stupid, crazy.

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 9 Mar. 5/2: They waited on Carmichael, and argued like a set of bat-brained flats that [they] could not afford to pay their toilers an increase.
[Aus]Teleg. (Brisbane) 11 Nov. 14/4: Yet so thoroughly are black cats venerated by the bat-headed British public [etc].
[US]Scribner’s Mag. 122 22: Gambrell is rotted, and that batbrain is rotted, and I just as soon rot under ground as to rot in here.
[US]N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 59: You think I’d spill a good thing to a bathead like Fire?
[US](con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 38: They’re all a bunch of bat-brains.
[US]J. Schaefer Mavericks (1968) 161: I’m too blamed busy chasing juvenile bat-brains in sporty cars.
[US]T. Wolfe Right Stuff 97: They regarded the military psychiatrist as the modern and unusually bat-brained version of the chaplain.
boo-blog 10 Mar. 🌐 Girl-E wins the batbrain award for this week (note that the only other contender is the stupider of the cats—they’re tied for the season).
bat carrier (n.)

(US prison) a police informer [ety. unknown; ? baseball; note bat n.4 means language, but no US use].

[US]G. Milburn ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 437: bat carrier, n., A police informer.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 24/1: Bat-carrier. (Rare) A stool pigeon for the police; a labor provocateur.
[US]El Paso Herald (TX) 3 Oct. 17/5: A few examples of [...] ‘calo’ [...] If the addict is caught via information furnished by infomers, the blame is rightfully affixed on ‘bat carriers’ or ‘belchers’.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

In phrases

at bat (adj.) (orig. US)

1. taking one’s turn.

[US]‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 15: They loved each other in season and out of season [...] If Damon were at the bat, Pythias was on deck.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ It’s Up to You 38: ‘But I’m afraid, Marietta,’ Clara J. was at the bat — ‘that I may not look well in ivory white.’.
[US]D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 64: I find you’re just the same as a simple name, missing your time at bat.
[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 17: You’re first at bat, Henry. Take off your cap and come along.
[US]L. Kramer Faggots 20: Up at bat now was this syndicate.

2. involved in, occupied by.

‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 25 Apr. 31/1: the friends are up at bat again [...] this time another worthy cause.
[US]G.H. Bean Yankee Auctioneer 36: Now those who wanted furniture were at bat.
carry one’s bat (v.) [in cricket, a batsman who ‘carries his bat’ remains undefeated until all his partners have been dismissed and the innings is over]

to outlast one’s rivals.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 56/1: from ca. 1870.
first crack off the bat (adv.)

at once, immediately, at the first attempt.

Motor 22 125: Right now—first crack off the bat, you've the chance to snap up the selling privilege for your own locality before someone else gets in ahead.
[US]Century Mag. 94 793: My first brother would have gone, too, first crack off the bat, only he 's married; and so he ’ll wait awhile.
S.L. Maxwell Thrills & Spills in Sports 27: Howdy friends, well, I’m going to fool you the first crack off the bat.
Midland Humor 326: But you're lucky [...] You picked the best fraternity first crack off the bat. How about that, fellows.
[US]WELS [DARE].
[US] in Wilson Collection [DARE].
[US] in DARE.
C. MacLeod Plain Old Man 109: Mrs. Kelling knows her own friends would buy them up first crack off the bat, and that wouldn't be fair to the rest.
S. Gates ‘Shock Tactics’ 15 Feb. at Turkotek.com Discussion Forum 🌐 First crack off the bat, we get a value judgment, apparently about nomadism itself.
go off the bat (v.) (also go to bat)

(Aus. prison) to masturbate.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Bat. Masturbate. As in ‘to go off the bat’ or ‘to go to bat’.
off one’s own bat (adv.) [SE in 20C+]

by oneself, without help.

S. Smith Fragm. Irish Church n.p.: He had no revenues but what he got off his own bat [F&H].
[Ire]Lonsdale in Croker Papers III (1884) 20: Derby has made [...] a fiasco. He would not make a Ministry from his own friends or his own bat.
[UK]H. Smart Social Sinners II 176: You have a weakness for the great world? Good. Score off your own bat, and it is the great world comes to you.
[UK]R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 261: ‘Did she pay for the flowers?’ ‘Wanted to, but I mean to do this bit off my own bat.’.
[UK]C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 183: They decided to do some detection off their own bat.
[Aus]D. Niland Shiralee 80: A friend of yours that made good off his own bat.
[UK]G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 112: But [...] the system’s unjust [...] makes you like a child who ain’t allowed to do nothing off his own bat.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] He got the catering job on the movie off his own bat.
on the bat (adv.)

(US black) in prospect, potentially.

[US](con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 52: You’ve got a whale on the bat if you’d only go to it.
right off the bat (adv.) (also hot from/off the bat)

(orig. US) at once, immediately, from the outset.

[US]‘Mark Twain’ ‘Meisterschaft’ in Century Mag. XXXV 459/1: Whoever may ask us a Meisterschaft question shall get a Meisterschaft answer—and hot from the bat!
[Aus]Aus. Jrnl 24 163/2: Let me hear that kid use slang again, and I’ll give it to him right off the bat. I'll wipe up the floor with him.
[US]St Paul Globe (MN) 31 Dec. 11/6: She could sing like a bird. That took my partner right off the bat.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. Red Page/2: ‘What I like about Kipling,’ said Mr. Dooley, ‘is that his pomes is right off th’ bat.... He is a minyit-man, a r-ready pote that sleeps like th’ driver iv thruck 9, with his poetic pants in his boots beside his bed, an’ him r-ready to jump out an’ slide down th’ pole th’ minyit th’ alarm sounds...’.
[US]Cape Girardeau Democrat (MO) 5 May 7/1: I caught a fish hot off the bat.
[US]W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 65: Turn lose your yarn at me hot off the bat.
[Can]Maclean’s (Toronto) Feb. 135/2: Buy a jimmy pipe [...] one that chums-up with your spirit right off the bat, natural like .
[US]F. Packard White Moll 181: De whole place ’d go up in fireworks right off de bat.
[US]D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 141: She knows me right off the bat.
[US]B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 159: That was the month everything happened. It started crazy right off the bat.
[US]L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 397: We took to them right off the bat.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 15 Nov. in Proud Highway (1997) 468: I note right off the bat that you appear ignorant of the true-certain historical fact.
[US]C. Loken Come Monday Morning 30: He reached under the seat for his bottle, couldn’t put his hand on it right off the bat.
[US]J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 118: I knew right off the bat that this was a class place by T.J. standards.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 188: I could sneak him right off the bat.
[US]K. Huff A Steady Rain I ii: Right off the bat she lays into me.
[US]R. Price Lush Life 87: You damn well knew right off the bat exactly who Ike was with last night, right?