(BAT.moh.bee.ling)
pp.
Putting up emotional defenses when a relationship becomes too intimate.
Example Citation:
I love you. I love you. I love you. No, just kidding. I'm not even going to call. Talk about your Batmobiling and your general lack of commitment.
— Gordon Macmillan, "Love bug brought on an irony attack," Campaign, May 12, 2000
Earliest Citation:
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.
— Peter Bradhsaw, "Sex in the windy city," The Guardian, August 6, 1999
Notes:
This word comes from the shield that protects the Batmobile, the vehicle used by comic book hero Batman. This word first started appearing in print in 1996 as part of various slang collections. These collections, so beloved by lazy journalists and editors everywhere, are almost always words that appeared originally in Gareth Branwyn's Jargon Watch column in Wired magazine (although they appear in print without attribution). Today's word is one of those Jargon Watch refugees, and it appeared in the column in the July, 1995 issue.
Related Words:
Category:
New words. 2013.