Bat.

Harlequin’s lath wand (French, batte, a wooden sword).

To carry out one’s bat (in cricket). Not to be “out” when the time for drawing the stumps has arrived.

Off his own bat. By his own exertions; on his own account. A cricketer’s phrase, meaning runs won by a single player.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.