rabbit

[ rab-it ]
See synonyms for rabbit on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural rab·bits, (especially collectively) rab·bit for 1-3.
  1. 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.

  2. any of various small hares.

  1. the fur of a rabbit or hare, often processed to imitate another fur.

  2. 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.

  3. British Informal. a person who is poor at sports, especially golf, tennis, or cricket.

Idioms about rabbit

  1. 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.

Origin of rabbit

1
1375–1425; late Middle English rabet(te) young rabbit, bunny, probably <Old North French; compare Walloon robett,dialectal Dutch robbe

Other words from rabbit

  • rab·bit·like, rab·bit·y, adjective

Words that may be confused with rabbit

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rabbit in a sentence

  • Without a word, the four children sank down behind the bushes like frightened rabbits.

    The Box-Car Children | Gertrude Chandler Warner
  • She's right smart younger than I am, and I've got eight children and five grandchildren, peart and lively as rabbits.

    The Cromptons | Mary J. Holmes
  • She liked to turn off the road and gallop across the trackless ways, sometimes frightening rabbits and coyotes from the sagebrush.

    Mystery Ranch | Arthur Chapman
  • But with the first shot both men left the house by the mill and scurried like rabbits for the open fields.

    The Amazing Interlude | Mary Roberts Rinehart
  • I have a printing-press, a collection of birds' eggs, and some white bantams and some rabbits.

British Dictionary definitions for rabbit

rabbit

/ (ˈræbɪt) /


nounplural -bits or -bit
  1. 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

  2. the fur of such an animal

  1. British informal a novice or poor performer at a game or sport

verb
  1. (intr) to hunt or shoot rabbits

  2. (intr ; often foll by on or away) British informal to talk inconsequentially; chatter

Origin of rabbit

1
(senses 1-4) C14: perhaps from Walloon robett, diminutive of Flemish robbe rabbit, of obscure origin (sense 5) C20: from rhyming slang rabbit and pork talk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with rabbit

rabbit

see pull (a rabbit) out of a hat.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.