"Bat-Signal" meaning in English

See Bat-Signal in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Bat-Signals [plural]
Etymology: 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 Synonyms: Bat-signal, bat-signal, Bat Signal, bat signal Related terms: 🦇, bat-phone, dog whistle

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Bat-Signal meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Bat-",
        "3": "signal"
      },
      "expansion": "Bat- + signal",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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 entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with Bat-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "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",
            "North America",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Art",
            "America",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Earth",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Nature",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Bat-signal"
        },
        {
          "word": "bat-signal"
        },
        {
          "word": "Bat Signal"
        },
        {
          "word": "bat signal"
        }
      ],
      "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": "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"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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 entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms prefixed with Bat-",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Bat-signal"
    },
    {
      "word": "bat-signal"
    },
    {
      "word": "Bat Signal"
    },
    {
      "word": "bat signal"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Bat-Signal"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (8203a16 and 304864d). 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.