Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The ultrasonic noise emitted by a bat, especially as used for echolocation.
  • noun A faint echo (of something); a tiny pulse, a slight wave (of feeling, emotion etc.).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bat +‎ squeak.

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Examples

  • Christian Bale lost out on best supporting actor for The Fighter, prompting a batsqueak of a grumble in the crowd, partly because he had been hotly tipped, and partly because of the absence of the winner, Geoffrey Rush.

    A critic's view of the Baftas 2011 2011

  • That unspun charm, which even Mr Blair could not deploy, has ensured that, however cruelly he is caricatured - as lapdog, sheep, Machiavelli, human shield or public school fag - the leader can still command more than a batsqueak of Cleggmania.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • At the time of our talking, there had been barely a batsqueak of scepticism that it was anything other than a gong-gobbling masterpiece.

    The Guardian World News Catherine Shoard 2011

  • Sometimes, although it may not seem like it, three is the perfect number in any relationship, as an addiction to texting, emailing and Tweeting obviates the need to Talk About the Future, Share Feelings or any of the other dread stuff that makes blokes turn to stone before our gaze and sounds the death knell for their last batsqueak of masculinity.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Judith Woods 2011

  • He is in the grip of a compulsion, which distracts him from a batsqueak of terror that he doesn't know what or who he is.

    Film | guardian.co.uk Peter Bradshaw 2010

  • After lunch Caryn has picked up every batsqueak of psychodynamics in that cooking class and extrapolates from it all to talk about the power of group behaviour and explain what leaders must watch out for in their own workplaces.

    FT.com / Food & Drink - Kitchen politics 2010

  • They provide eye-to-eye equality with men, emit a beguiling batsqueak of sexuality in a grey-clad business world.

    Top stories from Times Online 2009

  • Buñuel is anarchic and disturbing in a way that Dr Magnanti isn't: he sees unnatural contortion and hears a batsqueak of strangeness everywhere: even, or perhaps especially, in bourgeois areas of life which do not involve sexual transgression.

    Film | guardian.co.uk 2009

  • Buñuel is anarchic and disturbing in a way that Dr Magnanti isn't: he sees unnatural contortion and hears a batsqueak of strangeness everywhere: even, or perhaps especially, in bourgeois areas of life which do not involve sexual transgression.

    Film | guardian.co.uk 2009

  • I never thought that anyone would make me feel a batsqueak of sympathy for Sir Fred Goodwin, says Boris Johnson in The Daily Telegraph.

    MoneyWeek RSS - All 2009

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