bat » batter
Chiefly in:
batter an eyelid
Classification: English
Spotted in the wild:
- Hilarious film, it takes the piss so bad. When the black guys walk into the shop and get eyed up by the chinese owners, meanwhile the white guy with a huge jacket loots the place and nobody even batters an eyelid. (link)
- All the while, an-Nuayman did not laugh or batter an eyelid. (link)
- But my little boy didn’t get scared or batter an eyelid when he first came to visit me. It made me cry. (link)
- You realise that your life has no meaning whatsoever, and that 99.99% of the world would not batter an eyelid at your death. (link)
- It was unprecedented and he was taken aback but she had battered her eye lashes and smiled her special smile that made the dimples in her cheeks appear even deeper and cuter than they normally were, and of course he had relented. (link)
Unsurprisingly, the substitution _bat » batter_ is more common in _batter an eyelid_ than in _batter an eye_.
According to AHD4, _bat_ is “probably” a variant of _bate_, which is already involved in the eggcorn _baited breath_.
bated » baited
Chiefly in:
baited breath
Classification: English – nearly mainstream
Spotted in the wild:
- Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with baited breath. (J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury, London, 1999, p. 291)
- A big gain in the 2006 runs for gubernatorial and congressional seats will bolster the confidence of Democrats, but I’m sure they remember the obvious in America: Democratic Congress, Republican President… and vice versa. So, with the baited breath of Wiley Coyotes, they pore over blueprints of probability as they seek troubleshooting, eight-ball candidates – the whole exciting miasma of an ultimate victory for the UN’s New World Order. (Enter Stage Right, January 31, 2005)
- NASA boffins are this week watching satellite images with baited breath to see what will happen when an iceberg smashes into a glacier in Antartica. (The Sun, February 9, 2005)
- While everyone waits with baited breath, to see if Terrell Owens’ Willis Reed impression is enough to inspire his Philadelphia Eagles teammates to victory over the heavily-favored New England Patriots in today’s Super Bowl, other games are being played in the NFL. (WEBCommentary, February 6, 2005)
- Conference chief executive John Moules told BBC Sport: “It could affect us and we’re waiting with baited breath.” (BBC Sport, 2 February, 2005)