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Glite Dictionary
nail bat

nail bat

9.8
A wooden club with sharp metal pieces used to hurt or scare people
  • noun
  • NSFW
translation icon : bate con clavos
  • In the movie, the hero defended himself with a nail bat against the attackers.

Examples

  • The abandoned building had a nail bat leaning against the door as a warning.

  • I found a nail bat in the garage.

  • He crafted a nail bat for the zombie survival game.

  • He swung the nail bat with all his strength.

  • In the movie, the hero defended himself with a nail bat against the attackers.

  • The abandoned building had a nail bat leaning against the door as a warning.

  • He crafted a nail bat for the zombie survival game.

Surface Forms

nail bat singular
nail bats plural

Morphology

nail + bat

The meaning 'a bat with sharp nails embedded' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'nail' (a metal pin) with 'bat' (a club). Noun+noun compounding that denotes an object modified by another noun is a common, transparent compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The noun nail bat comes from the clear image of a wooden bat with sharp nails hammered into it, a stick people in films and survival stories used as a quick, homemade 'weapon'. So the name now means a rough, homemade tool used to scare or hit someone harder.