English

Alternative forms

• nightbat

Noun

night-bat ‎(plural night-bats)

1. (now only Caribbean) A (night-flying) bat.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.94:

     there were found divers populous nations, in farre differing climates, that lived upon them; made provision of them, and carefully fed them; as also of grasse-hoppers, pissemires, lizards, and night-bats [transl. chauvessouriz].

2. (now literary) A ghost, an evil spirit.
3. (Jamaica) A large nocturnal moth.