at bat

[ at bat ]

adverb

, Baseball.

1. taking one's turn to bat in a game:

   And now Sanchez is at bat with two runners in scoring position.

noun

, Baseball.

1. a player’s turn to bat, officially recorded as such unless the batter walks, is hit by a pitch, makes a sacrifice hit, or is interfered with by the catcher:

   In her debut appearance with the Rockford Peaches, she posted two hits in three at-bats.

Word History and Origins

Origin of at bat¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Idioms and Phrases

Taking one's turn. For example, At this conference, with so many interruptions, it's hard to tell which speaker is at bat , or I was nervous while waiting to testify, but once at bat I felt better . This idiom, from baseball, was already being transferred to other enterprises by the 1880s. Also see on deck .

Example Sentences

“Those early kind of signals can be helpful for understanding the progression of the fungus, of where it’s getting to,” said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International and an adjunct professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

From Los Angeles Times

Can he still generate the power needed to be productive at bat?

From Los Angeles Times

“I felt good after my first at bat, so I knew I could do it.”

From Los Angeles Times

Dr. Tina Cheng, the director of white-nose syndrome research at Bat Conservation International, was not involved in the study and has studied the deadly disease up-close, albeit not as a microbiologist.

From Salon

I’m not talking about any production in particular, but for any underrepresented group, our responsibility — the thing that makes me lose sleep, the thing that keeps me on the therapist’s couch, the thing that I’m journaling about — is to make sure we’re doing everything we can to meet the standard, every single time we’re up at bat.

From Los Angeles Times