Dictionary

batwing en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From bat + wing.

Meanings

1. The wing of a bat, or its shape.
   • His batwings were somehow more frightening for being the pathetic broken floundering things they were than if they had been strong, muscular beaters of the air. 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 94:
   • The junk was nearer, beating in toward the island, her brown batwing sail suddenly tall and terribly conspicuous against the sky. 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 491:
2. Several South or Southeast Asian species of tailless dark swallowtail butterflies in the genus Atrophaneura.
3. (slang) An area of flabby fat under a person's arms.
4. A long sleeve with a deep armhole, tapering toward the wrist.
5. One of a pair of swinging doors which typically do not lock nor cover the full vertical range of the doorway (leaving a large gap at the top and bottom), common especially in saloons.
   • Feigning indifference, Stacey strolled quickly toward the batwings. Looking over the doors he saw Snow and his companions walking in the direction of the hotel, but he couldn't be sure that was where they were actually headed. 2016 July 31, James Clay, Hard Stone, Robert Hale Ltd, →ISBN:
   • He made it to the saloon undetected and slipped under the batwing and over to the table where he had left his saddlebags. They weren't there. Fargo ran his hands over the top of the table to be sure, and swore. 2010 March 2, Jon Sharpe, The Trailsman #341: Sierra Six-Guns, Penguin, →ISBN:
   • A tall figure stepped up to the batwing doors of the saloon as Tommy and Matt passed. 2012, James E. Ferrell, Cross-Pull, page 385:
   • Reaching the saloon, John pulled back the right batwing and nodded for Utah Jimmy and Memphis Mayford to enter. After they went inside, John led them to the receiving line. The milling crowd moved aside quickly,[…] 2021 November 23, Conn Hamlett, John Lee Johnson in the Valley of the Sun: Along Came Jones, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:
   • The cantina was a flatroofed adobe, painfully white in the unrelenting sun, with a brush roof and splintery batwings. The doors swung back and forth as a man stepped before them and stood beneath the brush arbor, staring at Navarro,[…] 2005 April 5, Ralph Compton, Peter Brandvold, Ralph Compton Navarro, Penguin, →ISBN:
6. A heart-shaped rollercoaster feature with two inversions.
7. (attributive, often) An exercise or posture on the stomach wherein a dumbbell row or lateral raise is performed.

Forms

Deriveds

batwinged

Synonyms

bingo wings · magyar sleeve