| 释义 |
▪ I. rabbit, n.1|ˈræbɪt|
Forms: 5–6 rab(b)ette, 5–7 rabet, 6–8 rabbet, (6 -atte), 7 rabytt, 8 -it, 8– rabbit.
[app. of Northern French origin: cf. Walloon robett (Remacle). The primitive seems to occur in Flem. robbe (Kilian, De Bo; the latter also gives ribbe, rubbe), dim. robbeke(n; the ultimate etym. is unknown. If F. rabouillère (the burrow made by the female rabbit to kindle in) is connected, the ME. rabet may be more primitive in form than the Walloon and Flem. words.]
1. a. A common burrowing rodent of the hare-family (Leporidæ), esp. the common European species, Oryctolagus cuniculus, which is naturally of a brownish-grey colour, but in domestication also white, black, or pied. † Orig. applied only to the young animal, the full-grown one being called a cony. Also, one of several North American animals of the same family, esp. the varying hare, Lepus americanus.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxvii. 277 Conynges..bringeþ forþe many rabettes & multiplieþ ful swiþe. c1440Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 457 Then take conynges parboyled, or elles rabets, for thai are better for a lorde. 1502Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. York (1830) 13 A present of Rabettes and quayles. 1576Turberv. Bk. Venerie lxiii. 178 The Conie beareth her Rabettes xxx dayes, and then kindeleth. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 89 If two males be put to one female, they fight fiercely; but they will not hurt the rabbets. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. vi. 22 The Rabbets be much like ours in England. 1653Walton Angler viii. 171 Take the flesh of a Rabet or Cat cut smal. 1743M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina II. p. xxviii, The Monax. This animal is about the bigness of a wild rabbet. 1768Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 91 Rabbets will breed seven times a year. 1831J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. I. 268 Small hares, or, as we usually call them, Rabbits, are also frequently caught. 1842[see Orkneyman]. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 334 The rabbit lives to the age of eight or nine years. 1872R. L. Dashwood Chiploquorgan 88 There is a species of hare..mis-called a rabbit, which is numerous but hardly eatable. 1885E. Clark in Nature XXXI. 264/1 Large tracts are still honeycombed by the ubiquitous biscacha, a gigantic rabbit. c1897‘Mark Twain’ Autobiogr. (1924) I. 97 The sumptuous meals—well, it makes me cry to think of them. Fried chicken,..squirrels, rabbits, pheasants. 1907St. Nicholas July 835/1 Sometimes rabbits and prairie-dogs scampered among the bushes. 1958J. G. MacGregor North-West of 16 v. 69 Many an Alberta farmer and business man is alive today because of rabbits. 1969M. M. Firestone in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 64 Many ‘rabbits’ (varying hares) are caught in snares.
b. to buy the rabbit (slang), to conclude a transaction unfavourably, to fare badly.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. xviii. 156 If that air invoice aint ready soon, thee'll buy the rabbit, I guess! 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 52/2 He bought the rabbit, a criminal case in court poorly handled by attorney; got the worst of it in a business deal.
c. Used (freq. fig. or allusively) with reference to the conjuring trick of producing a rabbit from a hat (cf. hat n. 5 c).
1877E. Sachs Sleight of Hand xviii. 183 The production of..rabbits from a hat is always very startling. 1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 99 I've seen a man take rabbits out of a hat, and he told us we could see how he did it, if we watched hard. 1932L. Golding Magnolia Street ii. iv. 322 His wife..gave the impression of having emerged like a rabbit from the Conjurer's top-hat. 1938M. Allingham Fashion in Shrouds vii. 108 There you are... Once more the veteran conjuror staggers out with the rabbit. 1940A. Christie Sad Cypress ii. ii. 121 You want me..to be the conjuror. To take out of the empty hat rabbit after rabbit. 1965‘D. Shannon’ Death by Inches (1967) xx. 245 Well, you pulled the rabbit out of the hat. 1967Guardian 21 Sept. 7/1 Will man..control or stop the ever increasing flow of white rabbits..out of our technological top hats? 1975Times 20 Sept. 6/5 Almost any of the Poirots of the 1930s..produce the authentic rabbit-from-the-hat shock that is the whole aim of their sort of book.
d. pl. Also white rabbits. Repeated as a good-luck charm, esp. on the first day of a month (see quots.).
1920‘D. Yates’ Courts of Idleness ii. ii. 195 On the first day of the month you have to say ‘Rabbits’. If you say it to me first, I have to give you a present, and if I say it to you first, you have to give me a present. 1949H. Nicolson Diary 31 Dec. (1968) 178, I hear the clock strike midnight and say ‘rabbits’... That is the end of 1949. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xiii. 299 ‘On the first morning of the month,’ notes a typical informant, ‘before speaking to anyone else, one must say ‘White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits’ for luck.’ Subject to minor modifications the utterance of this spell appears to be the accepted routine throughout Britain. Some children feel it is enough just to cry ‘Rabbits’. 1972Evans & Thomson Leaping Hare xvi. 233 A Claydon (Suffolk) woman told us she used to say Hares, Hares before going to bed on the last day of the month, and Rabbits, Rabbits, when she got up in the morning. 1977Times 20 Aug. 12/2, I took the opportunity of asking them what was the magic word which they..should have said, first thing that morning... They replied ‘Rabbits’ except for a few..who said ‘White Rabbits’.
2. transf.
a. Applied contemptuously to a person; spec. (slang) a poor performer at any game; a novice; also attrib.
b. A shadow resembling the form of a rabbit, cast by the hands upon a wall.
c. (See quot. 1878.)
d. (See quot. 1882.); also in gen. use of a horse. slang. See also Welsh rabbit.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 91 Away, you horson upright Rabbet, away. 1849Plymouth Her. 21 Apr., Shadows..strong enough for children to make rabbits with their fingers upon a wall. 1878Besant & Rice By Celia's Arbour xxx, Even if you did happen to have a ‘rabbit’, that is one of the coats lined with white fur. 1882Standard 4 Sept. 6/2 Though somewhat of a ‘rabbit’, as a horse that runs ‘in and out’ is sometimes called. 1900F. P. Dunne Mr. Dooley's Philos. 170 ‘Well,’ says th' horse rayporther, ‘they's a couple iv rabbits goin' to sprint around th' thrack at th' fair groun's,’ he says. 1904Daily Mail 29 Jun. 4/6 Terms now used in describing the game of cricket... ‘Googlies, rabbits’. 1906Westm. Gaz. 8 May 1/3 Nearly every eleven has a ‘rabbit’ or two at the end. 1908A. W. Myers Compl. Lawn Tennis Player 184 There was no draw at all, the manager..merely selecting the four semi-finalists and filling in the gaps with the other players, most of them ‘rabbits’. 1924Punch 4 June 620 (caption) Nervous beginner (to caddy). ‘I-er-suppose you get an occasional ‘rabbit’ here?’ 1927Observer 17 Apr. 17/2 Fencing is no more considered to be a feeble pastime for ‘Rabbits’, for those boys who cannot play the more vigorous games of youth. 1930A. E. M. Foster Contract Bridge for All 7 Many people of the ‘rabbit’ class, and even average Auction players, are deterred from giving it a trial at all. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms 12 That girl is a rabbit. She's afraid to say ‘Boo’ to a goose. 1932Sun (Baltimore) 24 Sept. 20/2 He found the appearance of the young women improved by abandonment of ‘rabbit rules’... Freshman girls were required..to refrain from using cosmetics... But now the ‘rabbits’ can appear in all their glory of pink lips and powdered noses. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet ii. 47 He lifted his own reins. ‘Come up, rabbits,’ he said. ‘Let's hit for town.’ 1947People 22 June 7/4 Engines roar and the four ‘rabbits’ get away as best they can, but definitely not in the style of champions. 1952E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten i. 10 I'll bet you're a mile away by now, you rabbit! 1957Sun (Baltimore) 9 Apr. 20-b/3 ‘I think we owe it to the sponsors,’ Ford explained after his remarkable closing 66... ‘They help us when we're rabbits (a term for novices) and we should help them when we become winners.’ 1974J. I. M. Stewart Gaudy v. 95, I must have been accustomed to think of wee Dreichie as what we called a rabbit, meaning a timid boy wholly without aptitude either for games or for ragging around. 19760–10 Cricket Scene (Austral.) 41/2 Dennis Amiss..will have a special desire to prove to the Australian public that he is no longer Dennis Lillee's ‘rabbit’. a1976A. Christie Autobiogr. (1977) vi. iv. 320 He could get no fun out of playing [golf] with a rabbit like me. 1979Daily Tel. 14 Apr. 13/2 In ‘Rabbits Review’ B. P. Floyd aims..to cater with a light touch for the poorer player.
e. Liquor; a bottle of beer. to run the rabbit: see quots. 1916, 1941. Austral. slang.
1895E. Gibb Thrilling Incidents Convict System in Australasia 46 ‘Ikeing the rabbit for a fake for his Bingy, and making a coil of a conkey myrnionger’... Convict slang.. it may be freely translated as having surreptitiously concealed some liquor under the excuse that one was ill and it was required for medicine, and (‘making a coil’) complaining loudly of some fancied grievance on the part of a (‘conkey myrnionger’) contemptible or ignorant newly-arrived convict. 1916C. J. Dennis Songs of Sentimental Bloke Gloss. 124 Rabbit, to run the, to convey liquor from a public-house. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 58 Rabbit, a bottle of beer. Ibid. 62 Run the rabbit, to secure liquor, often illegally, e.g. after hours.
f. A smuggled or stolen article (see also quot. 1945). Naut. and Austral. slang.
1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 109 Rabbit, property stolen from the Royal Dockyards, most frequently used in Devonport. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 163 Rabbit, an article made by a sailor at sea as a gift to a friend or girl. As verb, to scrounge. 1955G. Freeman Liberty Man i. i. 11 All at once he remembered his presents for them. ‘Rabbits’ they called them in the navy. 1958Times 10 Feb. 11/6 ‘Making rabbits’ is a collective term for seamen's ‘hobbies’. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 167 Rabbit, an article unlawfully obtained and smuggled ashore.
g. [Shortening of rabbit-and-pork.] A conversation, a talk. Also, a lingo. slang.
1941[see rabbit-and-pork below]. 1950P. Tempest Lag's Lexicon 173 To have a ‘rabbit’ = to have a pow-wow. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights iii. 155 We still had quite a heated rabbit about it. 1962R. Cook Crust on its Uppers i. 20 Moody rabbits in Spanish bars. 1976E. Ward Hanged Man xxvii. 171 Touchy old place, Glasgow{ddd}you can't understand that Scotch rabbit they talk.
h. = pig n.1 9.
1949Amer. Speech XXIV. 33 The piece of steel or iron dropped or pushed through racked pipe to remove obstructions is known as a rabbit. 1975G. Anderson Coring v. 95 The core is not completely out of the barrel until a metal slug, called ‘the rabbit’, appears.
i. A pneumatically or hydraulically propelled container used to convey material into a nuclear reactor or other place where it is to be irradiated.
1950S. Glasstone Sourcebk. Atomic Energy xiii. 356/2 The study of the delayed-neutron emitters of short life is facilitated by the use of a device referred to colloquially as a ‘rabbit’; by this means a sample of fissionable material, after exposure to a high density of neutrons,..is rapidly transferred to a counter where the emission of the delayed neutrons is registered automatically. 1954R. Stephenson Introd. Nuclear Engin. x. 367 The rabbit (holder for the material to be irradiated) is rapidly shot into and out of the reactor by about 100 lb pressure of filtered air or carbon dioxide. 1967J. G. Wills Nuclear Power Plant Technol. 318 ‘Rabbits’ often consist of small cylinders of aluminium or plastic, moved by air pressure through a long pipe.
3. attrib. and Comb.
a. Simple attributive, as rabbit-blood, rabbit-burrow, rabbit-cleve, rabbit farm, rabbit fence, rabbit fur, † rabbit-hay, rabbit-hole, rabbit-house, rabbit-hutch (also fig.), rabbit netting, rabbit-paw, rabbit-pie, rabbit-run, rabbit-skin, rabbit snare, rabbit soup, rabbit-stock, rabbit trap, rabbit-warren (also fig.), rabbit wire.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 207 Eagle of the Rockies..Lifting the *rabbit-blood of the myriads up into something splendid. 1964M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) xxviii. 438 Culture is effected on Novy and McNeal's medium or in the water of condensation at the bottom of a rabbit-blood agar slope.
1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 423 Deserted *rabbet-burrows, or any other hollows of a like kind. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 420 A gallant fox getting to ground in a rabbit-burrow.
1869Blackmore Lorna D. xiii, I went all along on the ridge of the *rabbit⁓cleve.
1900J. K. Jerome Three Men on Bummel v. 106 A man starting a *rabbit farm with twelve selected rabbits..must, at the end of three years, be in receipt of an income of two thousand a year.
1939–40Army & Navy Stores Catal. 982/1 11/4{pp} Mesh for *Rabbit fences, proof against the smallest Rabbits. 1944F. Clune Red Heart 53 Colson travelled on to Birdsville, crossing the old rabbit fence (built in 1886) to keep vermin out of Queensland.
1873Practical Mag. I. 282 (heading) *Rabbit fur as a substitute for wool and cotton. 1973‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Starry Bird iii. 37 A long coat of gray glacé snake-skin, edged..with lime green rabbit fur.
1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Woodcock, Your Net must be like your *Rabbet-Hays.
1705Berkeley Cave Dunmore in Fraser Life (1871) 507 The earth turned up at the entrance of a *rabbit-hole. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 264 We were assured..that there were no rabbit-holes in the fields.
1743W. Ellis Mod. Husb. June xviii. 141 An old *Rabbit hutch, that had several Rooms in it. 1839W. Chambers Tour Belgium 77/1 A little garden..containing a rabbit hutch. 1859[see penny plain adj. s.v. penny 12 c]. 1905Pall Mall Mag. July 28/2 The concierge in his ‘rabbit hutch’ down below smiles and even sometimes whistles in tune. 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai ix. 134 Hurstbridge station was a low gravel platform with a small rabbit hutch of a booking office. 1977P. G. Winslow Witch Hill Murder ii. 135 The collection of rabbit hutches that was now the Manor.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 664/2 *Rabbit and Hare Nettings..4 ft. wide, for half grown rabbits. 1915Kipling Let. 22 Aug. in C. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) xvii. 436 Don't forget the beauty of rabbit netting overhead against hand-grenades. 1973Country Life 1 Mar. 511/1 The only solution is a deer fence..using large mesh, light-gauge wire above the ordinary rabbit netting.
1851in Life A. Fonblanque (1874) 499 A principal ingredient in this *rabbit-pie.
1876T. Hardy Ethelberta xxxiii, Every detail of barrow, path, and *rabbit-run.
1829Richardson Zool. Brit. Amer. I. 218 The winter skins of this animal [the American Hare] are imported by the Hudson's Bay Company under the name of *rabbit-skins. 1848Dickens Dombey vi, He hung the rabbit-skin over his left arm. 1861R. F. Burton City of Saints 590 They were dressed in the usual rabbit-skin cape.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 664/3 *Rabbit snares..A few made up ready for use generally in stock. 1978P. O'Donnell Dragon's Claw viii. 159 There was a noose of wire round his neck which..tightened like a rabbit snare.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery i. 37 (heading) *Rabbit soup à la reine. Ibid. 38 (heading) Brown rabbit soup. 1960Good Housek. Cookery Bk. (rev. ed.) 65/2 (heading) Rabbit soup.
1805Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1204 *Rabbit⁓stock demands, on the whole, but little regard.
1824Cobbett's Weekly Register 27 Mar. col. 797 It is the invariable practice of the farmers to have a number of *rabbit-traps constantly set on the farms. 1856C. Patmore Angel in Ho. ii. Prol. 3 But she turn'd pale, for now the beast Found stock-still in the rabbit-trap,..Unglobed himself. 1976J. B. Hilton Gamekeeper's Gallows vii. 61 Brunt..came upon a rabbit trap.
1766Smollett Trav. I. 32 Open downs, where there is a *rabbit warren. 1775Ash, Rabbit-warren. 1800M. Edgeworth The Will i, There is that rabbit-warren near Clover Hill. 1821M. Wilmot Let. 10 Apr. (1935) 104 This Rabbit Warren in the air. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 295 It is almost as thickly populated as a rabbit warren. 1905Birmingham Institute Mag. Oct. 187 The Institute has been graphically..described as a rabbit-warren. 1973‘S. Harvester’ Corner of Playground iii. vii. 219 Their dull dusty sunless offices in the chaotic rabbit-warren of officialdom.
1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 259 A quick movement of the hand as though he were pegging down a *rabbit-wire. 1945N. Collins London belongs to Me iii. xxxix. 301 The special visitors' room where they saw their loved ones through a screen of rabbit-wire. 1973‘M. Campbell’ Halfbreed iv. 30 We took Daddy's rabbit wire and strung it across two small green trees on either side of the footpath.
b. Objective and obj. genitive, as rabbit-breeder, rabbit-breeding, rabbit-catcher (also transf.), rabbit-chase, rabbit-chasing (n. and adj.), rabbit-courser, rabbit-coursing, rabbit-destroyer, rabbit-fancier, rabbit farmer, rabbit-farming, rabbit-hunting, rabbit-inspector, rabbit-keeper, rabbit-management, rabbit-rearer, rabbit-shooting, rabbit-trapper, rabbit-trapping; rabbit-hunt vb.
1885Census Instruct., *Rabbit Breeder, Catcher, Destroyer.
1848Maunder Treas. Nat. Hist. 560/1 Otherwise..will *Rabbit-breeding turn out a losing speculation.
1724Swift Wks. (1941) X. 146 *Rabbet Catcher. I'll Ferret him. 1885[see rabbit breeder above]. 1955Sun (Baltimore) 23 Feb. 5-b/2 Engineers..have stretched a nylon tennis net across a miniature landing field and are ‘serving’ Model F86 Sabre Jets into it. The purpose of the experiment is to test a new device, called a ‘rabbit catcher’.
1897Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 456/1 A genuine *rabbit-chase.
Ibid., The season of *rabbit-chasing begins..in October.
1895Ibid. XXVI. 426/2 The *rabbit-chasing pups.
1875*Rabbit-courser [see dog-racer s.v. dog n.1 19 a]. 1900J. K. Jerome Three Men on Bummel v. 106, I have never met a rabbit farmer myself worth two thousand a year.
1891Pall Mall G. 23 Dec. 6/3 Fond of what they call *rabbit-coursing.
1885*Rabbit destroyer [see rabbit breeder above].
1848Maunder Treas. Nat. Hist. 560/1 The ingenuity of *rabbit-fanciers has been shown in the production of various breeds.
1889G. F. Morant (title) Hutch *rabbit-farming in the open [in K. W. Knight The book of the rabbit].
1943J. Stuart Taps for Private Tussie xvii. 172 Uncle Mott cut wood for the fireplace in the mornins and *rabbit-hunted in the afternoons.
1873Trans. Illinois Dept. Agric. X. 65 They prevailed on him to suspend his *rabbit-hunting, and ‘show them 'round’. 1953N. Tinbergen Herring Gull's World iv. 27 Rabbit-hunting is a regular feature in the Dutch North Sea sand dunes.
1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling xiii. 114 They were collected by the *rabbit-inspector a number of years ago.
1848Chambers's Inform. People I. 628/2 Experienced *rabbit-keepers conceive too frequent breeding to be injurious.
1805Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1203 The hazard and uncertainty of *rabbit-management.
1848Chambers's Inform. People I. 629/1 The duty of the *rabbit-rearer.
1819Pantologia X. s.v., An occasional reduction..is found necessary..in which case *rabbit-shooting is a pleasant diversion. 1978H. Wouk War & Remembrance xxxix. 400 The slaughter that ensued was mere rabbit-shooting by our aircraft and submarines.
1888G. M. Fenn Dick o' the Fens 326 ‘Ay’, said the *rabbit-trapper.
1880W. Carnegie Practical Trapping 20 The same sort of gins, the use of which I advocated for *rabbit-trapping, will do. 1935Discovery June 168/1 Gamekeepers in winter in Rossshire often come across wild-cat tracks in the snow when rabbit-trapping.
c. Similative and parasynthetic, as rabbit-mouth, rabbit-shoulders; rabbit-backed, rabbit-coloured, rabbit-eared, rabbit-faced, rabbit-hearted, rabbit-like, rabbit-mouthed, rabbit-scared, rabbit-toothed adjs.; rabbit-wise adv.
1778Foote Trip Calais iii. Wks. 1799 II. 370 Red-faced, *rabbet-back'd. 1885W. J. E. Crane Bookbinding for Amateurs 71 The book will be ‘rabbit-backed’.
1953R. Graves Poems 18 Such gross-headed, *rabbit-coloured litters As soon they shall be happy to desert.
1835–40Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 185 That little..*rabbit-eared runt of a pig. 1939Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Dec. 756/1 Once there was a hasty glimpse of the rabbit-eared bandicoot. 1977Jersey Even. Post 26 July 4/1 And the rabbit-eared bandicoots, small marsupials, only come out to feed at night.
1905E. F. Benson Image in Sand i. 12 He was a *rabbit-faced little man.
1920Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 812/1 ‘*Rabbit-hearted’ is an expression commonly used not only by white races, but also by red and brown people.
1836–9Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 52/2 The light *rabbit-like hyrax. 1849Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia IV. 6 Body short, thick, and rabbit-like.
1833Disraeli 29 June in Corr. w. Sister (1886) 21 Handsome..but with one great fault, a *rabbit mouth.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Rabbit-mouthed,..having a rabbit-mouth; harelipped. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) xxix. 272 His soft and rabbit-mouthed touchiness.
1936Partisan Rev. III. 21/1 Standing there, his big gun smoking, *Rabbit-scared, alone. 1971Maclean's Mag. Oct. 3/2 We've never seemed so rabbit-scared as a nation as we did in August.
1784J. Barry in Lect. Paint. ii. (1848) 94 The excesses and deficiencies in the human form,..*rabbit shoulders, pot belly.
1800D. Wordsworth Jrnl. 14 May (1941) I. 37 The grassy-leaved *rabbit-toothed white flower. 1963D. Lessing Golden Notebk. ii. 246 His mouth is a rabbit-toothed hole, and his eyes are sunk in scar tissue. 1980‘T. Hinde’ Sir Henry & Sons iv. 33, I am round-faced and stocky... I became rabbit-toothed.
1846Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. (1852) 139 A starveling cat roasted *rabbit-wise.
d. instrumental, as rabbit-browsed, rabbit-haunted, rabbit-nibbled adjs.
1923Kipling Land & Sea Tales 81 A little *rabbit-browsed clearing of turf.
1921F. B. Young Black Diamond iv. 38 Evening visits to *rabbit-haunted banks.
1947W. de la Mare Coll. Stories for Children 30 The rabbit-*nibbled turf.
4. Special combs.: rabbit-and-pork Rhyming slang = talk n., v. (usu. ellipt.: see sense 2 g above and rabbit v. 6); rabbit ball U.S., a baseball that is springy in construction and lively in action; also fig.; rabbit-bandicoot, a small Australian marsupial belonging to the genus Macrotis of the family Peramelidæ, living in a burrow and having rabbit-like ears; cf. rabbit-eared in sense 3 c above; rabbit-beagle, a beagle used for the hunting of rabbits; so rabbit-beagling vbl. n.; rabbit berry, a deciduous North American shrub, Shepherdia argentea, of the family Elæagnaceæ, or its red berries; rabbit brush, bush, a western North American shrub of the genus Chrysothamnus, esp. C. nauseosus, belonging to the family Compositæ and bearing clusters of yellow flowers; rabbit drive U.S., a driving together of jack rabbits for slaughtering; rabbit fever, a vernacular name for tularæmia; rabbit-fish, the name of several fishes having points of resemblance to a rabbit, as (a) the British fishes Chimæra monstrosa and the striped rock-gurnard; (b) U.S., the smooth puffer, Lagocephalus lævigatus, or the spotted balloon fish, Cyclichthys schoepfi; (c) a small herbivorous fish belonging to the family Siganidæ, found in tropical Indo-Pacific seas and bearing venom glands on the fins; rabbit flea, one of several fleas which infest rabbits, esp. the European rabbit flea, Spilopsyllus cuniculi, or the North American rabbit flea, Cediopsylla simplex; rabbit food (also rabbit's food), food such as is eaten by rabbits; hence (slang), lettuce; green salad; rabbit-foot: see rabbit's foot; rabbit-hawk U.S., the red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, or the hen harrier, Circus cyaneus; rabbit-moth, a N. American bombycid moth, Lagoa opercularis; rabbit-mouth sucker, a N. American fish (see quot.); rabbit('s) pea U.S., a perennial herb, Tephrosia virginiana, belonging to the family Leguminosæ and bearing white, pink, or yellow flowers; also called goat's rue and wild sweet pea; rabbit-proof a., proof against rabbits; esp. of a fence, that excludes rabbits (in Austral. spec. such a fence marking a border between States); ellipt., such a fence; rabbit-rat, an Australian rodent belonging to either of the genera Mesembriomys and Conilurus, distinguished by long ears and a bushy tail, esp. the white-footed tree rat, C. albipes, the only one not restricted to northern parts of the country; rabbit-root, the wild sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis; rabbit-spout dial., a rabbit-burrow; rabbit-squirrel, a S. American chinchilla, esp. Lagidium Cuvieri; † rabbit-starter, a young rabbit; rabbit test, a pregnancy test in which rabbits are used; rabbit tobacco U.S., the sweet everlasting, Gnaphalium obtusifolium, belonging to the family Compositæ, and bearing clusters of fragrant white flowers; also, the dried flowers of this plant, used as a substitute for tobacco; rabbit tooth slang = buck-tooth (usu. pl.); rabbit-weed, a N. American plant.
1941G. Kersh They die with their Boots Clean i. 27 He uses slang... Talk is Rabbit, or *Rabbit-an'-Pork. 1960Spectator 4 Mar. 326 We only allow ourselves a second to remember that rabbit-and-pork is talk. 1971National Times (Austral.) 13 Dec. 20/1 (heading) Cockneys lay claim to their rabbit and pork.
1922N.Y. Times 5 June 10/3 The officials who control the destiny of the big leagues let it be known at the opening of the current season that the ‘*rabbit’ ball had seen its day. 1937Sun (Baltimore) 18 Aug. 8/3 There does not seem to be any question of the changes that have been worked in baseball by the lively rabbit ball. 1973Times 15 Aug. 7/3 The rabbit-ball..jumps like a rabbit. 1977Time 11 Apr. 17/1 Rawlings Co. now makes the official major league baseball.., and the scuttlebutt is that Rawlings is turning out a rabbit ball.
1832J. Bischoff Van Diemen's Land II. 28 (Morris) There are two kinds, the rat and the *rabbit bandicoot. 1896Spencer Thro' Larapurta Land 34 The white tips of the tails of the rabbit-bandicoot. 1923F. W. Jones Mammals S. Austral. I. 154 The animal..is usually termed the Common Rabbit-Bandicoot, but it would be most misleading to apply the term ‘common’ to it to-day. 1941E. Troughton Furred Animals Austral. 69 The very descriptive name of rabbit-bandicoot was provided by the early colonists who regarded them with a certain amount of tolerance because of their extremely useful share in the destruction of mice and insects. 1970W. D. L. Ride Guide Native Mammals Austral. vii. 104 There are generally thought to be only two species, the Common Rabbit Bandicoot and the small Central Australian Yallara or Lesser Rabbit Bandicoot.
1824Sporting Mag. XIV. 312/2 There is no prettier sport for youth than rabbit beagling... *Rabbit beagles should never be permitted to run hare. 1888H. Dalziel Brit. Dogs (ed. 2) I. xvi. 226 Beagles may be fairly classed as Hare-Beagles and Rabbit-Beagles, other distinction than size being minor.
1804J. Whitehouse Jrnl. 24 Aug. in Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1905) VII. ii. 52 We found some red berreys which they call *Rabbit berrys. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 30 Small red berries, the Indian name for which in English means rabbit berries. 1891[see mountain tea s.v. mountain 9 d]. 1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 454 S[heperdia] argentea, ‘Rabbit Berry’, ‘Buffalo Berry’,..scarlet fruits.
1914E. Stewart Lett. Woman Homesteader 18 Our horse was midside deep in *rabbit brush, a shrub just covered with flowers that look and smell like goldenrod. 1927W. Cather Death comes for Archbishop 95 The sandy soil of the plain..was splotched with masses of blooming rabbit brush. 1946D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist i. 17 The burro bush and rabbit brush are the natural sons of the desert. 1955Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 2 Nov. 11/5 That's rabbit-brush, a hearty range perennial that moves in quickly when other vegetation is killed. 1980Blair & Ketchum's Country Jrnl. Oct. 46/3 The first mule I ever owned was rescued from a prairie dog town in southern Colorado, where she had lived for who knows how long on fresh air and rabbit-brush.
1852H. Stansbury Expl. & Survey Valley of Gt. Salt Lake 235 The only vegetation today has been a little dwarf artemisia, grease-bush, *rabbit-bush. 1861R. F. Burton City of Saints 591 An expanse of white sage and large rabbit-bush. 1972R. & R. Wright Cariboo Mileposts 16 Grass and trees are scarce, with only sage and rabbit bush covering the ground. 1979Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 28 Apr. 3a/9 Pollen count (yesterday)..Rabbit bush 4.
1887Lisbon (N. Dakota) Star 23 Dec. 7/1 Several hundred people..assembled to engage in the *rabbit drive. 1963R. Symons Many Trails xii. 119 A hunt in the manner of the California rabbit drives. 1977New Yorker 11 July 43/3 We have rabbit drives there. Drive the rabbits from one end of the island to the other and kill them.
1925Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 25 Apr. 1244/1 A man..working in the Washington, D.C., market went to his physician..in 1921, for treatment for what he informed the physician was ‘*rabbit fever’, adding that ‘rabbit fever’ was well known among market men... This was the first case of tularemia to be reported for the eastern United States. 1955Sci. News Let. 16 July 43/1 Some species of ticks are occasional spreaders of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (rabbit fever). 1973Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 29 July 2/2 Then he mentioned that he had been doing some squirrel hunting and the doctor immediately ordered a blood test which showed he had tularemia, or ‘rabbit fever’.
1828J. Fleming Hist. Brit. Animals 173 The specimen [of Chimæra], from which the preceding description was taken, was sent from Unst, where it is termed the *Rabbit-fish. 1842J. E. DeKay Zool. N.Y. iv. 330 The Lineated Puffer..is called Rabbit-fish, according to Schoepfi, on account of the whiteness of its flesh. 1848Maunder Treas. Nat. Hist. 560/1 Rabbit-fish, a local name for the Northern Chimæra, or King of the Herrings. 1880Day Fishes Gt. Brit. I. 57 Streaked gurnard,..rock gurnard, rabbit fish. 1883Simmonds Dict. Usef. Animals, Rabbit⁓fish, a name for Tetrodon lævigatus..an American fish. 1884Bull. U.S. Nat. Museum No. 27. 428 Spiny Box-fish; Rabbit-fish; Swell Toad. East coast of the United States. 1897Rep. N.Y. Forest, Fish, & Game Comm. II. 224 Rabbit-fish; Smooth Puffer.—Occasionally taken in the fall in Gravesend Bay. 1905D. S. Jordan Guide to Study of Fishes II. xxiv. 423 In the [American] rabbit-fishes..the body is box-shaped. 1925J. T. Jenkins Fishes Brit. Isles 349 From its great cutting teeth it [sc. Chimæra monstrosa] is known to the Shetlanders as the Rabbit-fish. 1941R. Faherty Big Old Sun xi. 255 ‘I'm a blow-puffing rabbitfish,’ he sputtered. 1953J. L. B. Smith Sea Fishes S. Afr. 328 Rabbitfishes. Compressed ovate body with slippery skin and minute concealed scales... Curious small herbivorous fishes of reefs and weeds of the tropical Indo-Pacific. 1962K. F. Lagler et al. Ichthyol. iv. 32 Non-fatal but nevertheless painful to man..are stings of the venomous sharks,..rabbitfishes, and dragonets. 1973Aquaculture I. 361 Rabbitfish are widely spread throughout the Indian and the western and central Pacific oceans. 1975Times 5 Dec. 12/3 The deep-sea species..can be portrayed as menacing horrors. The specific name for one of them, rabbitfish, is Chimaera Monstrosa.
1904Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum XXVII. 368 In the United States the cat, dog, and *rabbit fleas..will readily attack the human being. 1925A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Ent. iii. 663 The rabbit flea..commonly affects the ears of hares and rabbits. 1963O. Breland Animal Life & Lore i. 26 In some regions, it [sc. myxomatosis] is transmitted by rabbit fleas. 1967J. M. Brownjohn tr. Grzimek's Four-Legged Australians xii. 250 For some years, European rabbit-fleas refused to propagate themselves in Australian research centres. 1975Times 23 June 4/2 The rabbit flea..spreads myxomatosis.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 58/1 *Rabbit Food..Pigeon Food..Foal Food. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 44/2 Rabbit's food, lettuce. 1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 45 Rabbit food, lettuce. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 163 Tomatoes are generally ‘squashers’, and ‘rabbit's food’ is any green salad. 1972A. Price Colonel Butler's Wolf ix. 98 You can both come back with me and eat pounds of rabbit food.
1851De Bow's Rev. XI. 54 1st, *Rabbit hawk. 1880G. W. Cable Grandissimes vii. 43 A great rabbit-hawk sat alone in the top of a lofty pecan-tree. 1904‘O. Henry’ Heart of West 64 The other eye noticed a rabbit-hawk sitting on a dead limb in a water-elm. 1964Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xlii. 22 Rabbit-hawk. The marsh hawk (Circus cyaneus), so called because of its flying low over the pastures in search of rodents.
1882Jordan & Gilbert Syn. Fishes N. America 144 Quassilabia lacera, Hare-lip Sucker..*Rabbit-mouth Sucker.
1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xvii. 199 A *rabbit-pea vine was in blossom. 1976Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 1101/1 Tephrosia..virginiana..Goat's rue, catgut, rabbit's pea.
1832Useful & Ornamental in Brit. Husbandry (1840) III. iii. 26 The fence of a forest-tree nursery requires to be *rabbit-proof. 1894W. Robinson Wild Garden (ed. 4) xv. 209 Periwinkle, which is named amongst rabbit-proof plants, is generally eaten to the ground in severe weather. a1902H. Morant in Penguin Bk. Austral. Ballads (1964) 212 But once we're through the rabbit-proof..it's ‘West-by-North’ again. 1957R. Stow Bystander 29 That's the coldest little bitch this side of the rabbit-proof fence. 1961Times 19 Apr. 14/7 Her rabbit-proof fence is not high enough. 1976D. Hewett Bonbons & Roses for Dolly 28 Best little ticket takers this side of the rabbit-proof.
1837G. Bennett Catal. Specimens Nat. Hist. Austral. Mus. 6 The *Rabbit Rat of the Colonists. Habitat, Interior of Australia. 1863J. Gould Mammals Austral. III. 1 White-footed Hapalotis... The Rabbit Rat of the Colonists. 1879A. R. Wallace Australasia iii. 55 Bandicoots and rabbit-rats, are small animals with sharp nose and long claws, allied to the kangaroos. 1941E. Troughton Furred Animals Austral. 305 The various species..are sometimes called ‘rabbit-rats’ in reference to the rather large ears. 1970W. D. L. Ride Guide Native Mammals Austral. ix. 142 Little is known of the White-footed Tree-rat of eastern Australia; early settlers called this the Rabbit Rat because of its rounded form and long ears. It has not been seen alive in this century.
a1833Richardson in Hooker Flor. Bor. Amer. I. 274 The Crees use the root of this plant..under the name of..(*Rabbit-root).
1886Field 27 Feb. 266/3 Here they..run him into a *rabbit-spout in the gorse.
1651Weldon Crt. Jas. I. 125 Little children did run up and downe the King's Lodgings, like little *Rabbit⁓starters about their boroughs.
1949S. T. De Lee Safeguarding Motherhood 133 (Index), *Rabbit test. 1958H. Speert Obstetr. & Gynecol. Milestones xxviii. 244 The urine of pregnant women contains a gonadotrophic substance simulating the secretion of the anterior pituitary in its effect on the mouse ovary. Applying this observation to the rabbit, Friedman proceeded to develop the pregnancy test known by his name, popularly as the ‘rabbit test’. 1977E. Leonard Unknown Man No. 89 i. 7 The guy was a gynecologist. So he went in with Rita for her rabbit test, the concerned hubby.
1880J. C. Harris Uncle Remus xiii. 66 ‘Den he drawd de rockin'-cheer in front er de fier, he did, en tuck a big chaw terbarker.’ ‘Tobacco, Uncle Remus?’ asked the little boy, incredulously. ‘*Rabbit terbarker, honey.’ 1909‘O. Henry’ Options 200, I don't give a pipeful of rabbit tobacco whether Queen Sophia Christina or Charlie Culberson rules these fairy isles. 1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xxix. 488 ‘You all got any chewing tobacco, Scarlett?’ ‘Nothing but rabbit tobacco. Pa smokes it in a corn cob.’ 1937Amer. Speech XII. 235/1 On all the poor land in the middle and far West there is a weed known as..rabbit tobacco. 1964Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xlii. 22 Rabbit tobacco. Life everlasting.., used in many folk remedies for catarrh; also chewed and smoked by boys.
1800*Rabbit tooth [implied in rabbit-toothed above]. 1915W. Owen Let. 4 Apr. (1967) 330 Will he be 13 or 14 next birthday?.. Are his rabbit-teeth humanising? 1980E. Leather Duveen Let. viii. 98 He was tall, thin, with large rabbit teeth.
1750G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados vi. 172 The Thistle, or *Rabbit-weed. 1884E. Ingersoll in Harper's Mag. Sept. 502/2 Sorry bunch-grass and sad rabbit-weed.
Sense 1 d in Dict. becomes 1 e. Add: [1.] d. Rabbit's fur.
1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 116 Our Lord of Pevensey..being clothed in his second fur gown reversed with rabbit. 1951N. Mitford Blessing i. xii. 123 ‘What a seasonable hat.’ ‘I love my little bit of rabbit.’ 1956N. Marsh Off with his Head (1957) iii. 45 He dropped his rabbit cap. 1981E. Longford Queen Mother iv. 64 Queen Alexandra had had hers lined with rabbit instead of ermine to save expense.
▪ II. † ˈrabbit, n.2 Obs.
Also rabit.
[Of obscure origin.]
A wooden drinking-vessel.
1685Meriton Praise Yorksh. Ale 1 Stronge Beer in Rabits and cheating penny Cans. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Rabbits, Wooden Kanns to Drink out of, once used on the Roads, now almost laid by.
▪ III. ˈrabbit, n.3
[a. F. rabot.]
= rab1 (q.v.).
1850–in Ogilvie and later Dicts.
▪ IV. rabbit, v.1|ˈræbɪt|
[f. rabbit n.1]
1. intr. To hunt for or catch rabbits. Chiefly in pres. pple.
1852Meanderings of Mem. I. 20 Beer never bound him rabbiting again. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxx, She liked..coming to look at them fishing or rabbiting. 1873G. W. Kitchin Hist. France I. iii. viii. 341 This man caught three Flemish students rabbiting in his warren.
2. intr. To crowd together like rabbits.
1892Sunday Mag. Sept. 602 The common people..rabbit together in miserable warrens.
3. intr. To go; to move quickly; to run away. dial. and colloq.
1887Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Assoc. XIX. 77 Miss ― du rabbut 'bout en awl wethurz. 1937D. Jones In Parenthesis iv. 71 You can't find the lane—the one way—you rabbit to and fro. 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 416/1 Rabbit..v.i., to move quickly, to run; specif., to flee, to escape. 1962J. F. Straker Coil of Rope iii. 22 Susan..kept skipping from one side of David to the other... David said irritably, ‘For heaven's sake stop rabbiting around!’ 1972J. Wambaugh Blue Knight (1973) ii. 33, I noticed another junkie watching me. He was trying to decide whether to rabbit or freeze.
4. To copulate. rare.
1919J. Masefield Reynard the Fox 16 I'll learn 'ee rabbit in my shed.
5. trans. To borrow or steal. Austral. Naut. slang. Cf. rabbit n.1 2 f.
1943Baker Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 63 To rabbit, to borrow, ‘scrounge’. (R.A.N. slang.) 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxi. 198 Why were Australian Navy men better at ‘rabbiting’ little valuable articles than Americans?
6. [See rabbit-and-pork s.v. rabbit n.1 4.] intr. To talk, to discourse volubly; to gabble. Freq. const. on. colloq.
1950P. Tempest Lag's Lexicon 173 One who ‘rabbits’ all the time is one who never stops talking. 1959Encounter Mar. 63/1 The next thing I knew, I was rabbiting away to a geezer. 1960News Chron. 16 Feb. 6/6 She don't want to stand rabbiting away about colourful denizens. 1963‘A. Garve’ Sea Monks iii. 108 Then stop rabbitin' an' get that wall cleaned. 1967A. Diment Dolly Dolly Spy iv. 39, I let him rabbit on about the twilight hours of the Third Reich. 1976J. Bingham God's Defector vii. 99 You go into a pub with a short-back-and-sides and people stop rabbiting and stare at you. 1977Guardian Weekly 9 Oct. 20/3 A girl reporter from Rolling Stone rabbits on idiotically about the Maharishi.
▪ V. rabbit, v.2 vulgar.|ˈræbɪt|
[Prob. a fanciful alteration of rat in od rat (Od1), drat.]
A meaningless word used as an imprecation = drat, etc. Also, drabbit, od(d) rabbit (see Od1 1 b).
1742Fielding J. Andrews iii. viii, ‘Rabbit the fellow’ cries he. 1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man iii, Rabbit me, but little Flanigan will look well in anything. 1787Grose Provinc. Gloss., D'rabbit it, a vulgar exclamation or abbreviation of God rabbit it, a foolish evasion of an oath. N. 1831Roby Trad. Lancash. Ser. ii. (1879) II. 196 Rabbit thee, Will, but the luggage will break thy back. 1880Mrs. Parr Adam & Eve xxix. 397 Drabbit the maid! 1889Doyle Micah Clarke 302 Rabbit me! but you are to be envied.
▪ VI. rabbit
variant of rabbet n. and v. |