Batted

How to spell batted

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce batted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does batted mean?

1. verbStruck a ball, or took a turn striking, using a bat.
2. verbFluttered the eyelashes or blinked quickly, often to charm or feign innocence.

Batted in a sentence

• He batted confidently throughout the second innings.

• She batted her eyelashes and asked for a discount.

• She batted the ball cleanly over the boundary rope.

• He batted his eyes against the bright morning sun.

Where does batted come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The verb 'bat' descends from the noun 'bat', a stout stick or club, which traces back to Old English 'batt', meaning a cudgel or staff. That early sense may have been reinforced by Old French 'batte', a beating-stick from 'battre' 'to beat', which itself goes back to Latin 'battuere' 'to strike or beat'. By the time cricket and later baseball developed, 'bat' had narrowed to mean the shaped club used to hit a ball, and the verb 'to bat' came to mean taking one's turn at striking. The past tense doubles the final t, giving 'batted', because the word ends in a single short vowel followed by a single consonant, a regular English spelling rule. The same 'beat/strike' idea survives in the phrase to 'bat one's eyelids', meaning to flutter them quickly.

How the word is built

• bat (a club used to hit a ball)
• -ed (past tense suffix, with the t doubled after a short vowel)