rabbit

 
Pronunciation: /ˈrabɪt/

noun

  • 1a gregarious burrowing plant-eating mammal, with long ears, long hind legs, and a short tail.
    • Family Leporidae: several genera and species, in particular the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), which is often kept as a pet or raised for food
  • [mass noun] the flesh of the rabbit as food: chunks of rabbit and chicken [as modifier]: rabbit pies
  • [mass noun] the fur of the rabbit.
  • North American term for hare.
  • informal a poor performer in a sport or game, in particular (in cricket) a poor batsman: he was a total rabbit with the bat
  • US a runner who acts as pacesetter in the first laps of a race.
  • 2British informal a conversation: we had quite a heated rabbit about it
    [from rabbit and pork, rhyming slang for 'talk']

verb (rabbits, rabbiting, rabbited)

[no object]
  • 1 (usually as noun rabbiting) hunt rabbits: locate the area where you can go rabbiting
  • 2British informal talk at length, especially about trivial matters: stop rabbiting on, will you, and go to bed!

Phrases

breed like rabbits

informal reproduce prolifically: they drank like fishes and bred like rabbits

pull (or bring) a rabbit out of the (or a) hat

do something unexpected but ingeniously effective in response to a problem: everyone is waiting to see if the king can pull a rabbit out of the hat and announce a ceasefire the Finance Minister pulled a few rabbits out of the hat to balance the Budget last year

Derivatives

rabbity

adjective

Origin:

late Middle English: apparently from Old French (compare with French dialect rabotte 'young rabbit'), perhaps of Dutch origin (compare with Flemish robbe)

Spelling help

Spell rabbit with a double b and one t.