Idiom
bat an eyelid
Meaning
To react in any slight way; to respond; to care.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She did not even bat an eyelid when I told her the news.”
“The experienced negotiator did not bat an eyelid when the other side threatened to walk away from the deal.”
“Despite the chaotic scene unfolding before him, the seasoned detective did not bat an eyelid, remaining focused entirely on the evidence at hand.”
Examples
simple
“She did not even bat an eyelid when I told her the news.”
contextual
“The experienced negotiator did not bat an eyelid when the other side threatened to walk away from the deal.”
complex
“Despite the chaotic scene unfolding before him, the seasoned detective did not bat an eyelid, remaining focused entirely on the evidence at hand.”
Origin
From *bat*, in the sense of a flutter, first recorded circa 1900. The term refers to the rapid movement of the eyelashes and emerged as a variation of the earlier nineteenth-century phrase *bat one's eyes*.
Key words
Related idioms
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