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rabbit
[rab-it]
noun
plural
rabbits ,plural
rabbit .any of several soft-furred, large-eared, rodentlike burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae, allied with the hares and pikas in the order Lagomorpha, having a divided upper lip and long hind legs, usually smaller than the hares and mainly distinguished from them by bearing blind and furless young in nests rather than fully developed young in the open.
any of various small hares.
the fur of a rabbit or hare, often processed to imitate another fur.
a runner in a distance race whose goal is chiefly to set a fast pace, either to exhaust a particular rival so that a teammate can win or to help another entrant break a record; pacesetter.
British Informal.a person who is poor at sports, especially golf, tennis, or cricket.
rabbit
/ ˈæɪ /
noun
any of various common gregarious burrowing leporid mammals, esp Oryctolagus cuniculus of Europe and North Africa and the cottontail of America. They are closely related and similar to hares but are smaller and have shorter ears
the fur of such an animal
informala novice or poor performer at a game or sport
verb
(intr) to hunt or shoot rabbits
informal(intr; often foll by on or away) to talk inconsequentially; chatter
Other 51Թ Forms
- rabbitlike adjective
- rabbity adjective
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of rabbit1
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of rabbit1
Idioms and Phrases
pull a rabbit out of the hat, to find or obtain a sudden solution to a problem.
Unless somebody pulls a rabbit out of the hat by next week, we'll be bankrupt.
Example Sentences
"You become the rabbit, but he was really keen to break the British record."
Down the rabbit hole they went, scouring message boards and subreddits, where they found lots of bad advice — some of it dangerous even.
Our brains know a cartoon isn’t real — be it a rascally rabbit, a culinary rat or a dragon with the same sheen as salt licorice — and yet our hearts gift it with life.
Like a lot of teens, Ethan seeks guidance in the online manosphere, going down a rabbit hole of misogynistic comments about his stepmother.
The funny thing about this part of the story is that, until the rabbit takes out his watch, Alice is unfazed by the sight of the hare.
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When To Use
There's just something about the names of some of the most familiar animals. Like dog, the origin of the word rabbit is obscure. But, at least we are few hops closer to a source with rabbit than we are with dog.Found in Middle English, rabbit originally meant "young rabbit, bunny," and was most likely borrowed from a French word. Scholars point us to the Walloon robett and the dialectical Dutch robbe. But from there, it’s an etymological rabbit hole.Walloon is a French dialect chiefly spoken in southern and southeastern Belgium and neighboring regions in France.Unsure about the difference between a rabbit and a hare? We've got you covered!
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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