Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bat; a reremouse; a flindermouse.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A bat; -- called also
flickermouse ,flindermouse , andflintymouse .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun zoology A
bat ; areremouse ;flindermouse .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Soon after the May garlands the meadow orchis comes up, which is called 'dead men's hands,' and after that the 'ram's-horn' orchis, which has a twisted petal; and in the evening the bat, which they call flittermouse, appears again.
Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies Richard Jefferies 1867
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“But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but up the chimney like a flittermouse.”
Westward Ho! 2007
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After that he greased it with the fat of a bat or flittermouse, to see if it was not written with the sperm of a whale, which some call ambergris.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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After that he greased it with the fat of a bat or flittermouse, to see if it was not written with the sperm of a whale, which some call ambergris.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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"Right -- _a flittermouse_!" agreed Ruth, suddenly bursting into a laugh.
Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies The Missing Pearl Necklace Alice B. Emerson
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Well! (may it count to me as gain!), rather than seem to offend him I lay down in that manger, though I had no more desire to sleep than has the flittermouse in our Sussex gloamings; also I was careful to offer no money, for that is brutality.
The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 1911
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I know not if it is owl or flittermouse; I could fancy it was
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In at least sixteen dialects a _flittermouse_ means "a bat."
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day 1873
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Thus in _The Voyage of Maeldune_, he has the striking line: "Our voices were thinner and fainter than any flittermouse-shriek."
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day 1873
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"But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but up the chimney like a flittermouse."
Westward Ho!, or, the voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth Charles Kingsley 1847
bilby commented on the word flittermouse
When the moon shines o'er the corn
And the beeetle drones his horn,
And the flittermice swift fly,
And the nightjars swooping cry,
And the young hares run and leap,
We waken from our sleep.
- William Sharp, 'The Field Mouse'.
November 8, 2008
qms commented on the word flittermouse
It's a form of eponymous flattery
To call a cat habitat "cattery."
Since flittermice people
So many a steeple
Then shouldn't a belfry be "battery?"
April 17, 2014