1
as in mad
showing or marked by a lack of good sense or judgment
He's full of creative ideas, but some are truly batty and lead nowhere.
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2
as in psychotic
unable to think in a clear or sensible way
Being cooped up together all weekend can make a family go a bit batty.
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Recent Examples of batty
The season takes new turns while remaining the most ambitious, batty and all-out pleasurable show on TV, an M.C. Escher maze whose plot convolutions never get in the way of its voice, heart and sense of humor.
—
James Poniewozik, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025
Throughout the bulk of Agatha All Along, LuPone’s divination witch Lilia has been dismissed as, well, a bit batty.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 27 Dec. 2024
Hot on the heels of 2022’s brilliantly batty tech-slasher and this year’s Afraid is Subservience, which is now streaming on Netflix.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2024
Guillermo Del Toro’s debut film is a radical departure from Dracula and his batty ilk, as vampirism is reimagined as a side effect of the immortality granted by a wondrous mechanism created by a 16th-century alchemist.
—James Grebey, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for batty
James Poniewozik, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025
Throughout the bulk of Agatha All Along, LuPone’s divination witch Lilia has been dismissed as, well, a bit batty.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 27 Dec. 2024
Hot on the heels of 2022’s brilliantly batty tech-slasher and this year’s Afraid is Subservience, which is now streaming on Netflix.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 13 Dec. 2024
Guillermo Del Toro’s debut film is a radical departure from Dracula and his batty ilk, as vampirism is reimagined as a side effect of the immortality granted by a wondrous mechanism created by a 16th-century alchemist.
—James Grebey, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for batty
Recent Examples of Synonyms for batty
Adjective
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Don’t be mad, and don’t try to hold them back with guilt.—
Harriette Cole,
Mercury News,
30 Sep. 2025
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Karl turned on the headlights and got the windshield wipers going at a mad slap.—
Ann Patchett,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Names and backstories are different, but in Pynchon’s text, stoner pianist Zoyd Wheeler is taking odd jobs and government disability checks obtained by staging regular psychotic episodes, when federal agent Brock Vond drives him and his 14-year-old daughter Prairie from their home.—
Rory Doherty,
Time,
26 Sep. 2025
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Lockjaw is Bob's psychotic, longtime nemesis, who is obsessed with finding him and his daughter.—
Lauren Huff,
Entertainment Weekly,
26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Continue reading … ORWELL NIGHTMARE – Joe Rogan blasts 'insane' media silence on arrests for social media posts.—
,
FOXNews.com,
2 Oct. 2025
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The queen greeted this insane question with a politely regal stare, ignored my faux pas, and continued talking about financial inclusion.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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For a guy like Bryan, who was still in the Navy four years ago and was playing small clubs as late as 2022, crazy indeed.—
Joel Hoard,
Rolling Stone,
28 Sep. 2025
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This crowd was crazy, an away game, a great defense playing.—
Scott Dochterman,
New York Times,
28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Plus, Jeremiah had to still be winded by busting out that extended dance remix of his maniacal villain laugh from back on the beach.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Oct. 2025
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In a desperate attempt to stop The Entity, President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) locates Ethan, who is now a rogue agent, and asks him to achieve the impossible by finding a way to shut the maniacal AI down.—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The name-calling and the stupid AI and the imagery has got to stop.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Sep. 2025
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These kids are being stupid and absurd and reckless and not thinking about anything other than what’s directly in front of their faces.—
Will Leitch,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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This recipe piles them on, casting apples — which are starting to appear at farmers markets — and nuts front and center as main characters supported by a chorus of greens.—
The Washington Post,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Sep. 2025
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Lifting the lid revealed a small tart topped with a tongue of Spanish sea urchin, resting on a nubbly bed of cancha nuts.—
Brock Keeling,
Oc Register,
22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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This place belongs to the Carver, a deranged butcher who hunts anything foolish enough to enter.—
Meredith G. White,
AZCentral.com,
25 Sep. 2025
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France had been humiliated in 1871 by Prussia in a foolish war of its own making, and Dreyfus, accused of passing military secrets to the Germans, was a convenient scapegoat in a time of national malaise.—
Ian Buruma,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Batty.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/batty. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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