have bats in one's belfry

have bats in one's belfry

English

Alternative forms

• have bats in the belfry

Etymology

1899,[1] from tendency of bats to fly around erratically, with “belfry” indicating “head, mind”.

Verb

have bats in one's belfry

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be crazy or eccentric.

   Anyone declaring himself Emperor of San Francisco probably had bats in his belfry.

   • 1900, Mary Etta Stickney, Brown of Lost River, page 254:

     You would certainly take the prize for bats in the belfry!--flying off on a wild-goose chase across a country where even the geese need a compass to keep to the course.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:insane

Derived terms

• batshit
• batty

Translations

To be crazy or eccentric

Danish: have rotter på loftet (lit. to have rats in the attic) Finnish: olla häkää yliskamarissa (idiomatic) French: avoir une araignée au plafond (fr)

Italian: mancare di qualche rotella, essere svitato Russian: винтика в голове не хватает (vintika v golove ne xvatajet), кры́ша пое́хала (ru) (krýša pojéxala), не все дома (ru) (ne vse doma), сорвало ба́шню (sorvalo bášnju), шарики за ро́лики заехали (šariki za róliki zajexali) Spanish: tener pájaros en la cabeza

References

1. “batty” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.