What is the meaning of the phrase ‘blind as a bat’?
Having very poor eyesight, or being unwilling to recognise something obvious.
What is the origin of the phrase ‘blind as a bat’?
The phrase ‘blind as a bat’ is a metaphor, idiom and simile. Here’s the origin story…
For a very long time, millenia in fact, people assumed that bats had terrible eyesight. This is because they have rapid, erratic flight paths that appear like frantic bumbling around as though they are unable to see at all. Very ungraceful compared to birds. Whatsmore, they seem to struggle in this way more during the bright light of day than they do in the dark during the night.
Written evidence of bats being described in such a way dates back as far as the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BCE to 322 BCE) who wrote:
‘For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all’
Today, we know that bats do have some vision, albeit very little. They primarily rely on echolocation to find their way around. Basically, bats emit sounds and they listen to the echoes of their calls to be able to locate what’s around them and determine where they are in relation to walls, trees and so on. It’s particularly handy for foraging and hunting prey.
What are some notable uses of the phrase ‘blind as a bat’?
In 2006, the rock and roll singer Meat Loaf released a song called ‘Blind as a Bat’ which features in the album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. In this context, the song uses the phrase to express unwavering love and trust, despite difficulties or challenges, turning a phrase associated with visual impairment into a metaphor for emotional resilience.
The phrase “blind as a bat” is also notably associated with the Batman franchise. In Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992), the villain Penguin sarcastically uses the phrase to mock Batman’s intelligence.
