vampire bat en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
Meanings
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Any of the three small bats of the subfamily Desmodontinae, native to Central and South America, which use their teeth to cut the skin of larger animals while they are asleep and surreptitiously drink blood, their sole source of food.
I noticed a peculiarity which distinguished these bats from any others with which I had come in contact (and on the Rio Negro my experiences in this respect had been ghastly and terrible: men wither and die there from nightly visitations of vampire bats).
1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page xix. 172:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| vampire bats | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
false vampire bat · spectral vampire bat · Linnaeus's false vampire bat · white-winged vampire bat
Hyponyms
Diphylla ecaudata · hairy-legged vampire bat · white-winged vampire bat · Diaemus youngi · Desmodus rotundus · common vampire bat
Synonyms
Translations (25)
it pipistrello vampiro (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · is vampíra (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · et vereimeja (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · pl wampir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ro vampir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · bg кръвосмучещ прилеп (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ota وامپیر (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ca vampir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · id kelelawar vampir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ro liliac vampir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · de Vampirfledermaus (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · el νυχτερίδα (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · cs upír (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · cmn 吸血蝠 (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · fr chauve-souris vampire (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · fi vampyyrilepakko (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ast vampiru (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ko 흡혈박쥐 (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · fi vampyyri (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · bg прилеп-вампир (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ga vaimpír (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · pt morcego-vampiro (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ms kelawar langsuir (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · vi dơi quỷ (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae) · ru вампи́р (bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae)