batty

adjective

bat·​ty ˈba-tē 

battier; battiest

1

: of, relating to, or resembling a bat

… the monster envelopes her in its batty wings and zips off to another world …

—Sara Boboltz

2

a

: lacking reason or mental soundness : foolish, irrational

batty ideas

I'm doing the battiest things: leaving my phone in the fridge and forgetting my keys.

—Kate Spicer

… all work and no play will drive you batty.

—Adam Pockross

… Old Man Winter refuses to take his snowball and go home. So we're stuck inside a little bit longer, maybe going a little batty after six months of winter.

—Joel Schlesinger

b

: extremely irritated, angry, or aggressive

… the relatively minor annoyances that for some reason get your goat and drive you batty.

—JR Raphael

Nothing drives me battier than overpaying for something I don't even enjoy.

—Cherie Low

… it's anyone's guess precisely why the Canadiens veteran forward went batty on New York Islanders rookie Nino Niederreiter …

—Dave Stubbs

battiness noun

Balancing a hat on top of a hat, David Dobkin's ''Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga'' tries to add even more humor to an event already legendary for its excesses and battiness.

—Jeannette Catsoulis

She is believable as the often-confused but resourceful Alice, giving her a little touch of battiness.

—Kathy Lauer-Williams

Synonyms

• balmy
• barmy [chiefly British]
• bats
• bedlam
• bonkers
• brainsick
• bughouse [slang]
• certifiable
• crackbrained
• cracked
• crackers
• crackpot
• cranky [dialect]
• crazed
• crazy
• cuckoo
• daffy
• daft
• demented
• deranged
• fruity [slang]
• gaga
• haywire
• insane
• kooky
• kookie
• loco [slang]
• loony
• looney
• loony tunes
• looney tunes
• lunatic
• mad
• maniacal
• maniac
• mental
• meshuga
• meshugge
• meshugah
• meshuggah
• moonstruck
• non compos mentis
• nuts
• nutty
• psycho
• psychotic
• scatty [chiefly British]
• screwy
• unbalanced
• unhinged
• unsound
• wacko
• whacko
• wacky
• whacky
• wud [chiefly Scottish]

Examples of batty in a Sentence

a batty old lady who lives with 100 cats

Recent Examples on the Web

Hot on the heels of 2022’s brilliantly batty tech-slasher and this year’s Afraid is Subservience, which is now streaming on Netflix. —Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2024

Terry Jones is Bedevere: a bit batty, with odd theories. —Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2024

The delightfully batty Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is loosely based on a book by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. —Danny Horn, EW.com, 24 July 2024

Were the nation’s focus not on what is going on between Biden’s ears, voters would be hearing more about the truly batty things coming out of Trump’s mouth, and those of his top allies. —Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 12 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1600, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing batty

• drive one batty
• went batty

Kids Definition

batty

adjective

bat·​ty ˈbat-ē 

battier; battiest

informal

: lacking reason or mental soundness : foolish