Also:
Not bat an eyelid
Not bat an eyelash
Not blink an eye
Without batting an eye
Meaning Of Idiom ‘To Not Bat and Eye’
To not bat an eye means to now show any emotional reaction, shock, or surprise; to act as if everything is completely normal (when it is not); to do something with no hesitation or thought. 1Pare, May. Body Idioms and More: For Learners of English. United States?: Mayuree Pare, 2005.,2Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,4Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.
Usage
This idiom cannot be used in the positive. To bat an eye is not an idiom and means to blink an eye. Perhaps confusingly, to bat one’s eyelashes is an idiom and means to flirt or feign romantic interest.
Examples of Use
“The suspect didn’t bat an eye when the police came to arrest him.”
“My aunt will spend $1000 on clothing without even batting an eye.
“The soldier threw himself on the grenade without batting an eye.”
“My boss didn’t bat an eyelid when he told me I was fired. I had worked for him for twenty years.”
Origin
The word bat in this idiom probably derives from the word bate meaning to lower or let down. Bat was used in these expressions to mean blink, since the early 1900s. 5Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,6Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
More Idioms Starting with N
More Body Part Idioms
More Eye Idioms
- Give Your Eye Teeth (for something)
- Up to One’s Ears
- See Eye to Eye
- Naked Eye, the
- Give Someone A Black Eye
More Not Idioms
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Sources
| 1. | ↲ | Pare, May. Body Idioms and More: For Learners of English. United States?: Mayuree Pare, 2005. |
| 2, 5. | ↲ | Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010. |
| 3, 6. | ↲ | Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. |
| 4. | ↲ | Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. |