"Bat-Signal" meaning in English

See Bat-Signal in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Bat-Signals [plural], Bat-signal [alternative], bat-signal [alternative], Bat Signal [alternative], bat signal [alternative]
Etymology: From Bat- + signal: the extended (general) sense comes from the Bat-Signal, a searchlight-based distress signal in the DC Universe, used by Gotham City police to summon the superhero Batman. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|Bat-|signal}} Bat- + signal Head templates: {{en-noun}} Bat-Signal (plural Bat-Signals)
  1. (idiomatic, informal) A thing which serves to attract or summon something. Wikipedia link: Bat-Signal, Batman, DC Universe, Gotham City Tags: idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Batman Related terms: 🦇, bat-phone, dog whistle

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Bat-",
        "3": "signal"
      },
      "expansion": "Bat- + signal",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Bat- + signal: the extended (general) sense comes from the Bat-Signal, a searchlight-based distress signal in the DC Universe, used by Gotham City police to summon the superhero Batman.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Bat-Signals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Bat-signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bat-signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Bat Signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bat signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Bat-Signal (plural Bat-Signals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with Bat-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Batman",
          "orig": "en:Batman",
          "parents": [
            "DC Comics",
            "Fictional characters",
            "American fiction",
            "Comics",
            "Fiction",
            "United States",
            "Literature",
            "Artistic works",
            "Countries",
            "Countries in North America",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Art",
            "Polities",
            "Places",
            "North America",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Names",
            "America",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Proper nouns",
            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Earth",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nouns",
            "Nature",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2017, Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need:",
          "text": "The power of that promise is part of why Trump's election win was like a Bat-Signal for hatemongers of all kinds.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Alyne Hart, Glitter, page 15:",
          "text": "\"Have you met my mom? She's like a Bat-Signal for jerks. I'm never falling in love, Kellan. Ever. It's so stupid.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Who Do I Think I Am?: Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams:",
          "text": "I honked the horn and flickered the lights as a bat signal for my mom to save me.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing which serves to attract or summon something."
      ],
      "id": "en-Bat-Signal-en-noun-PopXiPcp",
      "links": [
        [
          "attract",
          "attract"
        ],
        [
          "summon",
          "summon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) A thing which serves to attract or summon something."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "🦇"
        },
        {
          "word": "bat-phone"
        },
        {
          "word": "dog whistle"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Bat-Signal",
        "Batman",
        "DC Universe",
        "Gotham City"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Bat-Signal"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Bat-",
        "3": "signal"
      },
      "expansion": "Bat- + signal",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Bat- + signal: the extended (general) sense comes from the Bat-Signal, a searchlight-based distress signal in the DC Universe, used by Gotham City police to summon the superhero Batman.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Bat-Signals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Bat-signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bat-signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Bat Signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bat signal",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Bat-Signal (plural Bat-Signals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "🦇"
    },
    {
      "word": "bat-phone"
    },
    {
      "word": "dog whistle"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms prefixed with Bat-",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Batman"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2017, Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need:",
          "text": "The power of that promise is part of why Trump's election win was like a Bat-Signal for hatemongers of all kinds.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Alyne Hart, Glitter, page 15:",
          "text": "\"Have you met my mom? She's like a Bat-Signal for jerks. I'm never falling in love, Kellan. Ever. It's so stupid.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Who Do I Think I Am?: Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams:",
          "text": "I honked the horn and flickered the lights as a bat signal for my mom to save me.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A thing which serves to attract or summon something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "attract",
          "attract"
        ],
        [
          "summon",
          "summon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) A thing which serves to attract or summon something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Bat-Signal",
        "Batman",
        "DC Universe",
        "Gotham City"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Bat-Signal"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Bat-Signal meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f074e77 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.