flitter-mouse
Definition
Noun (countable, plural: flitter-mice): - A bat (the flying mammal of the order Chiroptera). The term is an informal or dialectal name for a bat, emphasizing its fluttering, erratic flight pattern.
Usage Examples
- (A large number of bats lived in the barn.)
- (A bat flew close to her in a quick, fluttering manner.)
- (Bats are linked to dark, mysterious places in traditional stories.)
Advanced Usage
"to be as blind as a flitter-mouse": a colloquial expression meaning to have very poor eyesight, based on the common misconception that bats are blind.
- Without his glasses, he is as blind as a flitter-mouse. (He cannot see well at all.)
"flitter-mouse colony": a group of bats living together in one location, such as a cave or attic.
- The flitter-mouse colony in the cave numbered in the thousands. (A large group of bats inhabited the cave.)
Variants and Related Words
- Flitter-mice (plural noun): the plural form of flitter-mouse.
- Flitter-mice emerge at dusk to hunt insects. (Bats come out at twilight.)
- Flitter (verb): to move quickly and lightly, fluttering or darting.
- The moths flittered around the lantern. (They moved in a quick, unsteady way.)
- Mouse (noun): a small rodent, but here used in the compound to suggest a small, mouse-like creature that flits.
Synonyms
- Bat: the standard modern term for the flying mammal.
- Chiropteran: a formal, scientific term for any member of the bat order.
- Flying mouse: an informal term, similar to flitter-mouse.
Phrasal Verbs
- Flitter about: to move quickly and aimlessly from place to place, like a bat.
- The children flittered about the garden, chasing fireflies. (They moved energetically and without a fixed direction.)
Related Idioms
- Like a flitter-mouse out of hell: an exaggerated expression meaning to move very fast or erratically.
- He ran out of the building like a flitter-mouse out of hell. (He fled with great speed and urgency.)
- Have bats in the belfry: an idiom meaning to be eccentric or slightly mad, sometimes linked to the image of flitter-mice in a bell tower.
- People think she has bats in the belfry because of her strange ideas. (She is considered eccentric.)