at bat

[ at bat ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adverb

, Baseball.

taking one's turn to bat in a game:
And now Sanchez is at bat with two runners in scoring position.

noun

, Baseball.

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.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of at bat¹

First recorded in 1880–85

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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 .

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Example Sentences

Both Broome and Jahn have seen a segment of the at-bat on restored film.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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