Word.ws English Dictionary

Bat-Signal

Bat-Signal noun: a thing which serves to attract or summon something.

Noun

Bat-Signal (plural Bat-Signals)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) A thing which serves to attract or summon something.
    • The power of that promise is part of why Trump's election win was like a Bat-Signal for hatemongers of all kinds.2017, Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need
    • "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."2022, Alyne Hart, Glitter, page 15

Forms of Bat-Signal

pluralBat-Signals
alternative formBat-signal
alternative formbat-signal
alternative formBat Signal
alternative formbat signal

Origin of Bat-Signal

From 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.

Questions about Bat-Signal

What does Bat-Signal mean?
Bat-Signal means a thing which serves to attract or summon something.
What part of speech is Bat-Signal?
Bat-Signal is a noun.
What is the plural of Bat-Signal?
The plural of Bat-Signal is Bat-Signals.

Words near Bat-Signal in the dictionary

  1. bat-pad
  2. bat-pads
  3. bat-phone
  4. bat-phones
  5. bat-shit
  6. Bat-Signal
  7. Bat-Signals
  8. bat-wing
  9. bat-wings
  10. bata
  11. Bataan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bat-Signal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Bat-Signal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bat-signal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.