bat around

English

Alternative forms

• bat about ('discuss' and 'flit' senses)

Verb

bat around (third-person singular simple present bats around, present participle batting around, simple past and past participle batted around)

1. (intransitive, baseball) To have each of a team's batting line-up positions complete an at-bat in the same half-inning.
   • 1965, Recreation‎^[1], National Recreation Association, page 498:

     If the teams do not have the same number of players, the team with the greater number of players bats around once per inning, and the team with the smaller number of players will bat an equal number of times as the opposing team, […].

   • 2005, John P. Rossi, The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse, McFarland, →ISBN, page 128:

     […] the Braves knocked Bunning out, batting around and scoring six runs in the fourth inning. They then scored four more runs the next inning, batting around once again against Dallas Green […].

   1. To have a team's first batter of the inning come to bat for a second time (after all of the others in the batting line-up have batted). (See the usage note below.)
   • 2016 July 31, Bleacher Report Milestones, “Phillies Bat Around in 8th Inning Without Recording a Hit”, in Bleacher Report‎^[2]:

     The Phillies thus batted around the lineup without a hit for the first time since July 17, 1992, a run that lasted more than 24 years, per ESPN Stats & Info. If not for the inning-ending double play, the Phillies might have even sent 10 or 11 batters to the plate without recording a single hit.

2. (transitive, informal) To discuss.

   I think we've batted this idea around enough to take a decision.

3. (intransitive, informal) To flit quickly from place to place.

   You must be tired after batting around all day.

4. (intransitive, informal) To waste time; to idle or loaf.

Usage notes

• In some usage it may be said that the first batter has to come up to bat again to complete the round, but there is no consensus for this.
• In transitive senses the object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.

Translations

in baseball

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to discuss