to bat the breeze
- phrasal verb
- Informal
- Whenever Sarah visits, we end up batting the breeze over tea.
Examples
-
After the meeting, they batted the breeze outside the office.
-
They love to bat the breeze after class.
-
We sat on the porch and bat the breeze for hours.
-
Can we bat the breeze for a while?
-
After the meeting, they batted the breeze outside the office.
-
Whenever Sarah visits, we end up batting the breeze over tea.
-
Can we bat the breeze for a while?
Synonyms
269
1.0
To talk in a friendly, informal way about small everyday things
40
1.6
To talk in a friendly, casual way about a subject
29
3.3
To talk with someone in a friendly way
9
6.8
To chat in a relaxed informal way about unimportant things
7
3.0
To talk in a friendly, light way about unimportant things
2
8.1
To chat in a relaxed way about everyday things
To talk in a relaxed way about nothing important
Talking in a friendly, relaxed way with other people
Talk in a friendly, relaxed way
To talk briefly in an informal way
To talk in a lively, informal way about things like music
Antonyms
How Casual
- Informal
3
7.9
- Informal
9
6.8
- Informal
- Informal
312
1.0
∞
1.0
29
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
bat + the + breeze
The meaning 'to chat casually' cannot be derived from the literal senses of 'bat' (to strike) and 'breeze' (a light wind); there is no transparent compositional mapping from hitting a breeze to informal conversation. This is a colloquial idiom whose sense is language-specific and unpredictable for a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The idiom bat the breeze may come from the image of people sitting and lightly batting at a small wind, with the bat touching the breeze. Because this is a relaxed, idle action, the phrase came to mean 'to have a casual conversation'.