rabbit
Americannoun
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.
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any of various small hares.
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the fur of a rabbit or hare, often processed to imitate another fur.
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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.
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British Informal. a person who is poor at sports, especially golf, tennis, or cricket.
idioms
noun
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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
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the fur of such an animal
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informal a novice or poor performer at a game or sport
verb
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(intr) to hunt or shoot rabbits
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informal (intr; often foll by on or away) to talk inconsequentially; chatter
Usage
Where does rabbit come from? 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!
Other Word Forms
- rabbitlike adjective
- rabbity adjective
Etymology
Origin of rabbit
1375–1425; late Middle English rabet ( te ) young rabbit, bunny, probably < Old North French; compare Walloon robett, dialectal Dutch robbe
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I had a rabbit and if I was playing with her my tics would really calm down," she says.
From BBC
Conflagrations abound—in one, a pair of rabbits anxiously scamper across a road to outrun the flames.
He recalls Wilson looking like a “scared rabbit” when he walked into the studio to find some of the session musicians who’d worked with the Beach Boys back in the old days.
From Los Angeles Times
Just as we walked out of our fields into the thick timber of the bottoms, a big fat swamp rabbit popped out of a brush pile and tore down a game trail.
From Literature
They looked just like rabbit holes, but supposedly gnome holes all led to a large underground cavern where they kept hoards of food.
From Literature
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.
