little brown bat
- noun
- /ˈlɪtəl braʊn bæt/
- US
:
murciélago marrón pequeño
- A hibernating little brown bat, for example, may take a breath less often than once an hour.
- little brown bat
Examples
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Many people are surprised to learn that a little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 insects in one night.
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A hibernating little brown bat, for example, may take a breath less often than once an hour.
Academic text (2007) -
Examples of this are a little brown bat or the big brown bat.
-
The little brown bat is commonly seen fluttering around the trees at dusk.
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Researchers are studying the habitats of the little brown bat to understand its role in the ecosystem.
Synonyms
A small brown bat common across North America
A small common North American bat that lives across the continent
How Big
- Australian
1
8.2
- US
- Specialized
1
7.1
- US
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a simple descriptive noun phrase whose meaning is directly built from its constituents: a small (little) brown-coloured (brown) bat (bat). This straightforward compositional structure is common across languages and follows normal adjectival modification patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words will readily understand it.
Etymology
The noun little brown bat is a simple name: the animal is little and brown, so people used those words to tell this small bat apart from other kinds. That's why the name means 'a small, widespread species of North American bat'.