batlike

Adjective

batlike (comparative more batlike, superlative most batlike)

1. Having characteristics similar to those of a bat, usually used with reference to the flying mammal.
   • […] they cling, like creepers or women, to the nearest support, to fly from that corroding ennui and listlessness, those tumults of the mind, which flit batlike amid the golden-groined ceilings, and cannot be dispelled by the lictor guard.1838, William Gifford et al., The Quarterly Review, page 113
   • He had told himself bitterly as he walked through the streets that she was a figure of the womanhood of her country, a batlike soul waking to the consciousness of itself in darkness and secrecy and loneliness.1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC
2. Similar to that of a bat.
   • His sketches show the details of batlike wings which were to spread out on the downward stroke and fold up with the upward stroke.1912, Charles B. Hayward, Dirigible Balloons, page 1
   • What was it? They could not tell themselves. They only knew that the black shadows at the top of the staircase had thickened, had coalesced, had taken a definite, batlike shape.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019