batmobile

batmobile

See also: Batmobile

English

Alternative forms

• Batmobile

Etymology

From the Batmobile driven by superhero Batman in the eponymous media franchise, from bat +‎ -mobile. The second verb sense references the retractable shielding featured on the vehicle in the 1989 film.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

batmobile (third-person singular simple present batmobiles, present participle batmobiling, simple past and past participle batmobiled)

1. (slang) To move or proceed as if in the Batmobile
   • 1966, George A. Woods, "Pow! Zowie! Zap! It's Batman", The New York Times, 10 July 1966:

     We knew they were coming to children's records. It was only a matter of time before Bruce Wain^[sic] and Dick Grayson would come Batmobiling off the turntable.

   • 1975, Maureen Smith, "Tinkertoys and Teddybears and Other Old Favorites", McCall's, December 1975, page 9:

     Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo, come batmobiling right out of the old comic strip into a toy gift set for youngsters.

   • 2000, Ken Tucker, "Caped Fears", Entertainment Weekly, 16 June 2000:

     To be sure, DC Comics' Caped Crusader wasn't Batmobiling off the newsstands in the psychedelic '60s; […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:batmobile.
2. (dated slang) To put up an emotional or intellectual shield, especially to protect oneself from something that makes one uncomfortable.
   • 1997, James Coates, "Generica, Semisweet Land Of Jitterati", Chicago Tribune, 8 June 1997:

     Genericans live on fast food bought with $20 bills (Yuppie food coupons) taken out of automatic teller machines.

     They tend to be young men and women prone to batmobiling, defined as "putting up protective emotional shields just as a relationship enters an intimate vulnerable stage," like the steel plates that cloak Batman's car.

   • 1998, Linda Jaivin, Rock 'n' Roll Babes from Outer Space, page 243:

     Baby's antennae stood straight up. She tried to read him but Jake was too quick for her. He was batmobiling. His deflector screens had shot up—he was an emotional escape vehicle, complete with tinted windows. Bullet-proof, bomb-proof, utterly impenetrable.

   • 1999, Peter Bradshaw, "Sex in the windy city", The Guardian, 6 August 1999:

     Meredith (Gillian Anderson) is a frosty, uptight theatre director being romanced by an architect (John Stewart), but she is, as we say in the 90s, batmobiling - her defences are up.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:batmobile.

References

1. Gareth Branwyn, "Jargon Watch", Wired, 1 July 1995
2. "Don't Go Postal if You Don't Know The New Jargon", Tech Monitor, 19 June 1997
3. Paul McFedries, Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture, page 277

Anagrams

• bombilate