have bats in the 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 (third-person singular simple present has bats in one's belfry, present participle having bats in one's belfry, simple past and past participle had 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.

   • 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page xv. 136:

     "That's sane," he replied mechanically. "I figured all along there were no bats in your belfry."

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) Esperanto: havi muŝon en la cerbo Finnish: olla sekaisin, olla latvasta laho, olla häkää yliskamarissa French: avoir une araignée au plafond (fr) German: nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben (de) Hungarian: nincs ki a négy kereke Italian: mancare di qualche rotella, essere svitato Polish: mieć nie po kolei w głowie (pl) impf 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 (es)

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “batty”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.