flittermouse
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A bat; a reremouse; a flindermouse.
Examples
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Soon after the May garlands the meadow orchis comes up, which is called 'dead men's hands,' and after that the 'ram's-horn' orchis, which has a twisted petal; and in the evening the bat, which they call flittermouse, appears again.
Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies
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But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but up the chimney like a flittermouse.
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After that he greased it with the fat of a bat or flittermouse, to see if it was not written with the sperm of a whale, which some call ambergris.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
Note
This word is in imitation of the German 'fledermaus.' 'Die Fledermaus' ('The Bat') is an operatta composed by Johann Strauss II.
