rabbitn.1
/ˈrabɪt/, U.S. /ˈræbət/ I. The animal.
1.
a. A gregarious, burrowing, plant-eating mammal, Oryctolagus cuniculus (family Leporidae, order Lagomorpha), which has long ears, typically brownish-grey fur, and a short, white tail, has been domesticated and bred as a pet and for meat, and is proverbial for its rate of reproduction. Originally: †a young rabbit (the adult being called a coney) (obsolete). In recent use more fully European rabbit. Also with distinguishing word specifying the breed. Cf. coney n.1 2.The rabbit is native to south-west Europe and north-west Africa and was introduced to England and Ireland by the Normans as a source of meat. It has since been introduced widely elsewhere, often becoming a pest.Angora, chinchilla, Havana rabbit, etc.: see the first element.In quot. 1607: a young guinea pig.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Oryctolagus (rabbit) > young
rabbita1398
rabbit-suckera1475
rabbit-starter1651
squab1838
coney1876
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Oryctolagus (rabbit)
coneyc1430
rabbit1502
bunny1699
pussy1715
mappie1825
map1866
drummer1894
flopsy bunny1909
underground mutton1946
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 291v Conynges..bringen forþ many rabettes & multiplien ful swiþe.
1471 MS Pepys 1047 in Notes & Queries (1978) Feb. 8/2 A nest of rabbyts.
a1475 Bk. Hawking (Harl. 2340) in Studia Neophilol. (1944) 16 6 (MED) And þu wolte take a goshauke, let his wache be a coluoure, and yf he falle not there to, put a rabett.
1502 in N. H. Nicolas Privy Purse Expenses Elizabeth of York (1830) 13 A present of Rabettes and quayles.
1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie lxiii. 178 The Conie beareth hyr Rabettes .xxx. dayes, and then kindeleth.
1607 J. Munzingerus in E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 112 If two males [sc. pig-conies] be put to one female, they fight fircely, but they will not hurt the Rabbets.
1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler viii. 171 Take the flesh of a Rabet or Cat cut smal. View more context for this quotation
1696 H. Kelsey in Kelsey Papers (1929) 59 Today our hunters kill'd 30 patridges and 3 Rabbits.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. x. 146 When my Cloaths were worn to Rags, I made myself others with the Skins of Rabbets.
1766 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. i. 43 Rabbets will breed seven times a year.
1832 J. Baxter Libr. Agric. & Hort. Knowl. (ed. 2) 275 The rabbit lives to the age of eight or nine years.
1849 tr. J. D. Wyss Swiss Family Robinson 2nd Ser. xvii. 152 Fritz has two magnificent Angora rabbits in his pouch.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles I. xiii. 167 Watching the skipping rabbits on a moonlit warren.
1930 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 51 966 The infectious myxoma of rabbits..is one of the first maladies placed in the virus group.
1953 Sci. News 28 18 Myxomatosis in the European rabbits is unique in its very high lethality.
1962 A. Pirie Lens Metabolism 429 Rabbit lenses were obtained from the laboratory stock of Dutch rabbits killed by overdose of Nembutal.
1992 BBC Wildlife (BNC) Jan. 49 The European rabbit is also important in the diet of the feral mink, which is given little credit for culling this acknowledged pest.
b. Any of various similar mammals belonging to other genera of the family Leporidae, esp. the North American genus Sylvilagus; (North American) a hare (genus Lepus), esp. the snowshoe hare, L. americanus. Frequently with distinguishing word.jack-, marsh, mule-eared, sage, wood-rabbit, etc.: see the first element.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Lepus (hares) > lepus americanus (snowshoe hare)
rabbit1634
prairie hare1840
sage hare1868
snow-shoe1888
snow-shoe rabbit1889
snowshoe hare1921
mountain hare1923
1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect i. vi. 22 The Rabbets be much like ours in England.
1708 J. Oldmixon Brit. Empire in Amer. I. 92 [In New-England] there are Bears, Foxes, Rackoons, Otters, Beavers, Deer, Hares, Rabbits, as also that admirable Creature the Mose.
1831 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. I. 268 Small hares, or, as we usually call them, Rabbits, are also frequently caught.
1859 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 2) Jackass Rabbit (Lepus callotis)... It is known also by the names of Mule Rabbit, Texan Hare, and Blacktailed Hare.
1872 R. L. Dashwood Chiploquorgan 88 There is a species of hare..mis-called a rabbit, which is numerous but hardly eatable.
1885 Harper's Mag. May 828/2 A cotton-tail rabbit rose.
1907 St. Nicholas July 835/1 Sometimes rabbits and prairie-dogs scampered among the bushes.
a1939 Z. Grey Black Mesa (1955) i. 1 The deer and coyote and jack rabbit slaked their thirst there.
1969 M. M. Firestone in H. Halpert & G. M. Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 64 Many ‘rabbits’ (varying hares) are caught in snares.
1997 Molecular Phylogenetics & Evol. 7 294 The marsh rabbit, S. palustris, and the swamp rabbit, S. aquaticus, are sister taxa.
c. Any of various mammals, mostly of other orders, that resemble the rabbit in some way. Usually with distinguishing word.marsh, rock rabbit, etc.: see the first element.
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a1823 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVI. 793/2 Cœlogenus Paca..They are sometimes called Hog Rabbits, and are natives of Brazil.
1826 J. Atkinson Acct. Agric. & Grazing New S. Wales 23 The rat, or native rabbit, has all the habits of the domestic rat of Europe.
1885 Nature 22 Jan. 264/1 Large tracts are still honeycombed by the ubiquitous biscacho, a gigantic rabbit.
1917 U.S. Dept. Agric. Farmers' Bull. No. 869. 10 In the retail markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wilmington, and other cities, they are sold as ‘marsh rabbits’, but no attempt is made to conceal the fact that they are muskrats.
1962 Field, Horse & Rodeo (Calgary, Alberta) Nov. 15/3 The Pika (or Rock Rabbit) spends most of the daylight hours cutting and gathering vegetation.
1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 15 May 11/1 Hyraxes (sometimes called conies, dassies, or rock rabbits), are relatives of the hoofed animals.
2.
a. A rabbit or its flesh used as food.
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?c1425 Recipe in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (Arun. 334) (1790) 457 (MED) Take conynges parboyled, or elles rabets, for thai are better for a lorde.
1474 in C. L. Kingsford Stonor Lett. & Papers (1919) I. 144 (MED) The second course..lambe, pigge, vele..baken rabettes.
1573 J. Partridge Treasurie Commodious Conceits vi. sig. B.ii A sawce for a rosted Rabbet.
1653 True Gentlewomans Delight 127 in Choice Man. Secrets Physick & Chyrurgery Stir the Eggs together in the liquor, set it upon the fire till it be thick, then pour it upon the Rabbit, so serve it in.
1761 J. Armstrong Day 13 You think me nice perhaps: Yet I could dine On roasted Rabbit; or fat Turky and Chine.
1886 Overland Monthly Nov. 506 I hasked for tick and them wouldn't give it to me, for the fore quarter of a mewer, what they said was rabbit.
1935 Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men i. iv. 87 The refreshments are parched peanuts, fried rabbit, fish, chicken and chitterlings.
2005 Olive July 16/1 Meat, usually pork but also duck and rabbit, cooked in its own fat.
b. The fur of the rabbit.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > skin or hide > skin with hair attached or fur > [noun] > of rabbit
coneya1200
coney skinc1450
coney fur1597
coney wool1630
Angora1763
flick1812
rabbit1906
bunny1950
chinchilla1959
1878 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) IV. 381 At present hare wool is not sorted, but formerly it was divided into black back, brown back, sides, pate (useless), cheeks and tail, as in the case of rabbit wool.]
1906 R. Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 116 Our Lord of Pevensey..being clothed in his second fur gown reversed with rabbit.
1951 N. Mitford Blessing i. xii. 123 ‘What a seasonable hat.’ ‘I love my little bit of rabbit.’
1981 E. Longford Queen Mother iv. 64 Queen Alexandra had had hers lined with rabbit instead of ermine to save expense.
2005 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 19 Jan. 12 Yeti boots lined with rabbit echoed the ‘Oh Pioneer’ theme.
II. Extended uses.
3. Something resembling a rabbit. † c. A variety of fur-lined coat. Obsolete.
a. depreciative. A person likened to a rabbit, typically in being timid or ineffectual; (slang) a poor or novice player, esp. (Cricket) a weak batter.In quot. a1616 as a general term of contempt, perhaps an error for rabble n.1, which is printed in the quarto of 1600.
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the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > condition of being held in contempt > [noun] > state or quality of being contemptible > contemptible person
wormc825
wretchOE
thingOE
hinderlingc1175
harlot?c1225
mixa1300
villain1303
whelpc1330
wonnera1340
bismera1400
vilec1400
beasta1425
creaturec1450
dog bolt1465
fouling?a1475
drivel1478
shit1508
marmoset1523
mammeta1529
pilgarlica1529
pode1528
slave1537
slim1548
skit-brains?1553
grasshopper1556
scavenger1563
old boss1566
rag1566
shrub1566
ketterela1572
shake-rag1571
skybala1572
mumpsimus1573
smatchetc1582
squib1586
scabship1589
vassal1589
baboon1592
Gibraltar1593
polecat1593
mushroom1594
nodc1595
cittern-head1598
nit1598
stockfish1598
cum-twang1599
dish-wash1599
pettitoe1599
mustard-token1600
viliaco1600
cargo1602
stump1602
snotty-nose1604
sprat1605
wormling1605
brock1607
dogfly?1611
shag-rag1611
shack-rag1612
thrum1612
rabbita1616
fitchock1616
unworthy1616
baseling1618
shag1620
glow-worm1624
snip1633
the son of a worm1633
grousea1637
shab1637
wormship1648
muckworm1649
whiffler1659
prig1679
rotten egg1686
prigster1688
begged fool1693
hang-dog1693
bugger1694
reptile1697
squinny1716
snool1718
ramscallion1734
footer1748
jackass1756
hallion1789
skite1790
rattlesnake1791
snot1809
mudworm1814
skunk1816
stirrah1816
spalpeen1817
nyaff1825
skin1825
weed1825
tiger1827
beggar1834
despicability1837
squirt1844
prawn1845
shake1846
white mouse1846
scurf1851
sweep1853
cockroach1856
bummer1857
medlar1859
cunt1860
shuck1862
missing link1863
schweinhund1871
creepa1876
bum1882
trashbag1886
tinhorn1887
snot-rag1888
rodent1889
whelpling1889
pie eatera1891
mess1891
schmuck1892
fucker1893
cheapskate1894
cocksucker1894
gutter-bird1896
perisher1896
skate1896
schmendrick1897
nyamps1900
ullage1901
fink1903
onion1904
punk1904
shitepoke1905
tinhorn sport1906
streeler1907
zob1911
stink1916
motherfucker1918
Oscar1918
shitass1918
shit-face1923
tripe-hound1923
gimp1924
garbage can1925
twerp1925
jughead1926
mong1926
fuck?1927
arsehole1928
dirty dog1928
gazook1928
muzzler1928
roach1929
shite1929
mook1930
lug1931
slug1931
woodchuck1931
crud1932
dip1932
bohunkus1933
lint-head1933
Nimrod1933
warb1933
fuck-piga1935
owl-hoot1934
pissant1935
poot1935
shmegegge1937
motheree1938
motorcycle1938
squiff1939
pendejo1940
snotnose1941
jerkface1942
slag1943
yuck1943
fuckface?1945
fuckhead?1945
shit-head1945
shite-hawk1948
schlub1950
asswipe1953
mother1955
weenie1956
hard-on1958
rass hole1959
schmucko1959
bitch ass1961
effer1961
lamer1961
arsewipe1962
asshole1962
butthole1962
cock1962
dipshit1963
motherfuck1964
dork1965
bumhole1967
mofo1967
tosspot1967
crudball1968
dipstick1968
douche1968
frickface1968
schlong1968
fuckwit1969
rassclaat1969
ass1970
wank1970
fecker1971
wanker1971
butt-fucker1972
slimeball1972
bloodclaat1973
fuckwad1974
mutha1974
suck1974
cocksuck1977
tosser1977
plank1981
sleazebag1981
spastic1981
dweeb1982
bumboclaat1983
dickwad1983
scuzzbag1983
sleazeball1983
butt-face1984
dickweed1984
saddie1985
butt plug1986
jerkweed1988
dick-sucker1989
microcephalic1989
wankstain1990
sadster1992
buttmunch1993
fanny1995
jackhole1996
fassyhole1997
fannybaws2000
fassy2002
society > leisure > sport > player or sportsperson > [noun] > poor performer
muff1819
muffin1830
rabbit1904
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 (1623) ii. ii. 79 Away, you horson vpright Rabbet [1600 rabble], away.
1904 Daily Mail 29 June 4/6 Terms now used in describing the game of cricket... ‘Googlies, rabbits’.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 8 May 1/3 Nearly every eleven has a ‘rabbit’ or two at the end.
1908 A. S. M. Hutchinson Once aboard Lugger vi. 36 His name is no longer a byword; he is a rabbit.
1932 A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms 12 That girl is a rabbit. She's afraid to say ‘Boo’ to a goose.
1936 Street & Smith's Western Story Mag. 14 Mar. 90/2 In spite of the curses and derisive cries of ‘Rabbit’! and ‘Yaller dog’!
1974 J. 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.
2000 Mirror (Nexis) 18 Dec. 39 He is useless with the bat and Fletcher has an aversion to rabbits in his batting line-up.
b. A shadow resembling a rabbit cast by the hands upon a wall, screen, etc.
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1849 Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse Herald 21 Apr. 2/3 Shadows,..strong enough for children to make Rabbits with their fingers upon a wall.
1856 ‘F. Fern’ Rose Clark xxxix. 238 Arthur was amusing himself making rabbits with his fingers upon the walls.
1984 S. Townsend Growing Pains Adrian Mole 34 Barry Kent kept putting his fingers in front of the projector and making rabbits and giraffes and other animal shapes.
2002 Financial Times (Nexis) 13 Nov. 14 Journalists made shadow puppets in the light of the projector. At one point Greenspan appeared to be addressing a large rabbit.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > coat > types of > made of specific material
skin coat1533
buff1598
buff coat1633
hair-camlet1676
duffel1852
Guernsey coat1859
rabbit1877
polo coat1880
lammy coat1916
sheepskin1917
teddy bear1925
ranch mink1934
Persian1957
Persian lamb1959
leathers1962
leopard1973
Afghan1974
sable1975
squirrel1978
1877 W. Besant & J. Rice in Graphic 8 Dec. 538/2 Even if you did happen to have a ‘rabbit’, that is, one of the coats lined with white fur.
d. slang (chiefly Horse Racing). A horse deemed to resemble a rabbit in some way.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > equus caballus or horse > [noun]
horsec825
blonkOE
brockc1000
mareOE
stota1100
caplec1290
foala1300
rouncyc1300
scot1319
caballc1450
jade1553
chival1567
prancer1567
ball1570
pranker1591
roussin1602
wormly1606
cheval1609
sonipes1639
neigher1649
quadruped1660
keffel1699
prad1703
jig1706
hoss1815
cayuse1841
yarraman1848
quad1854
plug1860
bronco1869
gee-gee1869
quadrupedant1870
rabbit1882
gee1887
neddy1887
nanto1889
prod1891
goat1894
skin1918
bang-tail1921
horsy1923
steed-
1882 Standard 4 Sept. 6/2 Though somewhat of a ‘rabbit’, as a horse that runs ‘in and out’ is sometimes called.
1900 F. 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.
1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet ii. 47 He lifted his own reins. ‘Come up, rabbits,’ he said. ‘Let's hit for town.’
2005 N.Y. Times 5 May c23/1 The owners of Bandini entered this colt as a ‘rabbit’ in hopes of softening up Bellamy Road. He will run a half mile and quit.
e. U.S. Sport. A quick player or fast runner; (Athletics) a runner who acts as a (designated) pacesetter in the early part of a race.
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the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > going swiftly on foot > [noun] > running > a runner > a swift runner
hare-footc1410
flight1579
swift-foot1825
scud1857
sharpshins1883
rabbit1925
speedster1927
1925 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 20 Aug. a18/5 The nickname ‘Rabbit’ was attached to Walter Maranville, manager-shortstop for the Chicago Cubs... We read the other day that the name was suggested by the speed with which Maranville used to pounce upon ground balls.
1934 J. W. Ridings in Journalism Q. Dec. 354 Rabbit,..(track; general)—dash man.
1955 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Feb. b15/3 There should never be a rabbit in a race... It may..inject a stimulus into one particular race, but in general it hurts track.
1984 R. Angell in New Yorker 12 Mar. 54/1 A man who..gets himself down to second in three-three is a good base runner. A tenth off makes him a real rabbit.
2006 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) (Nexis) 6 May d7 The race will have a rabbit, a designated runner to set the pace for the first two laps or so before falling off.
f. An artificial rabbit which is propelled mechanically along the rail at a greyhound track to be chased by the racing dogs.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > racing or race > greyhound racing > [noun] > electric hare
electric hare1920
rabbit1927
tin hare1934
1927 Jrnl. Land & Public Utility Econ. 3 123/2 An ugly, half-painted race track where greyhounds chased a mechanical rabbit to provide atmosphere and excitement.
1968 N.Y. Times 1 Dec. xx. 3 The Biscayne Kennel Club, where the greyhounds will chase the rabbit until March 5.
1973 Greeley (Colorado) Tribune 2 June 23 Whizzmo, the white rabbit, is attached to the end of a pole. The pole rotates in a wide circle and a dog will chase it as is the case in a greyhound race at a track.
2005 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) (Nexis) 11 Apr. 5 The white rabbit—with legs permanently fixed in a flying-leap—is the only sure bet in the stadium as it zings along the rail, first past the finishing post.
4.
a. Australian slang. Alcohol; a bottle of beer; esp. in to run the rabbit: to procure alcohol, sometimes illegally. Now rare.
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the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > [noun]
drink1042
liquor1340
bousea1350
cidera1382
dwale1393
sicera1400
barrelc1400
strong drinkc1405
watera1475
swig1548
tipple1581
amber1598
tickle-brain1598
malt pie1599
swill1602
spicket1615
lap1618
John Barleycornc1625
pottle1632
upsy Englisha1640
upsy Friese1648
tipplage1653
heartsease1668
fuddle1680
rosin1691
tea1693
suck1699
guzzlea1704
alcohol1742
the right stuff1748
intoxicant1757
lush1790
tear-brain1796
demon1799
rum1799
poison1805
fogram1808
swizzle1813
gatter1818
wine(s) and spirit(s)1819
mother's milkc1821
skink1823
alcoholics1832
jough1834
alky1844
waipiro1845
medicine1847
stimulant1848
booze1859
tiddly1859
neck oil1860
lotion1864
shrab1867
nose paint1880
fixing1882
wet1894
rabbit1895
shicker1900
jollop1920
mule1920
giggle-water1929
rookus juice1929
River Ouse1931
juice1932
lunatic soup1933
wallop1933
skimish1936
sauce1940
turps1945
grog1946
joy juice1960
the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > ale or beer > [noun] > specific quantity of
cue1603
cee1605
jug?1635
gun1674
ale kilderkin1704
swank1726
nip1736
pint1742
pt.1850
yard of ale1872
square1882
half1888
butcher1889
rabbit1895
rigger1911
sleever1936
tank1936
middy1941
tallboy1956
tube1969
tinnie1974
society > trade and finance > buying > buy [verb (intransitive)] > buy liquor illegally
to run the rabbit1916
1895 E. Gibb Thrilling Incidents Convict Syst. Australasia 46 ‘Ikeing the rabbit for a fake for his Bingy’... 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.
1911 Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Apr. 15/2 It was agreed that he who drew ‘Carbine’ should run the rabbit... The liquid having materialised, it was proposed that we should try again.
1916 C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke (new ed.) Gloss. 124 Rabbit, to run the, to convey liquor from a public-house.
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 58 Rabbit, a bottle of beer.
1955 N. Pulliam I traveled Lonely Land 386 Run the rabbit, to buy liquor illegally after closing hours or in some zone supposed to be closed.
b. Nautical slang. An article that has been made, smuggled, or stolen by a sailor. Cf. rabbit v.2 5.
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the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > stolen goods > [noun] > article of
stealth1426
rifle1657
steal1825
filching1834
cribbing1837
thieving1861
cribbage1862
rabbit1927
1927 ‘Giraldus’ Musings Merry Matloe 185 Rabbit, any article belonging to the service taken on shore. The term is usually applied in a smuggling sense.
1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 109 Rabbit, property stolen from the Royal Dockyards, most frequently used in Devonport.
1945 S. J. Baker 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.
1955 G. Freeman Liberty Man i. i. 11 All at once he remembered his presents for them. ‘Rabbits’ they called them in the navy.
1958 Times 10 Feb. 11/6 ‘Making rabbits’ is a collective term for seamen's ‘hobbies’.
1989 R. Jolly Jackspeak 231 Rabbit(s), frequent descriptive term for a gift—or something that has been proffed [= acquired by dubious means]. The word originates from Chatham Dockyard, where a small island inside the harbour area was overrun with rabbits. These were often taken home as a welcome (and free) source of fresh meat.
5. British slang. Conversation, talk; an instance of this. Also: a dialect or argot.
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the mind > language > speech > conversation > [noun] > a, the, or this conversation
speakc1300
dialoguec1450
speech1469
talk1548
colloquy1581
enterparlance1595
dialogism1603
colloquium1609
discourse1632
conversea1645
colloque1658
conversation1694
say1786
intercommune1820
tell1864
chin1877
conversation piece1936
rabbit1941
rabbit and pork1941
goss1983
the mind > language > a language > register > [noun] > jargon
language1502
term of art1570
fustiana1593
jargoning1623
jargon1651
speciality1657
lingo1659
cant1684
linguaa1734
patois1790
slang1801
shibboleth1829
glim-glibber1844
argot1860
gammy1864
patter1875
stagese1876
vernacular1876
palaver1909
babble1930
buzzword1946
in word1964
rabbit1976
1941 G. Kersh They die with their Boots Clean i. 27 He uses slang... Talk is Rabbit, or Rabbit-an'-Pork.
1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights iii. 155 We still had quite a heated rabbit about it.
1976 E. Ward Hanged Man xxvii. 171 Touchy old place, Glasgow…you can't understand that Scotch rabbit they talk.
1985 D. Lucie Progress i. ii, in Fashion, Progress, Hard Feelings, Doing the Business (1991) 103 You ain't making a lot of noise here... You've usually got enough rabbit for both of us.
2006 Daily Star (Nexis) 8 Jan. 33 The pair no longer enjoy a good ‘rabbit’ and..off stage they are divided by a wall of silence.
6. Technical uses.
a. Engineering. A pneumatically or hydraulically propelled container used to convey material into and out of a nuclear reactor or other place for irradiation.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > other vehicles according to specific use > [noun] > vehicle conveying fuel into nuclear reactor
rabbit1948
1948 Physical Rev. 73 112/1 The rabbit is an electronically controlled pneumatic transfer device..[and] moves a sample which is to be irradiated to a position near the reactor tank of the pile and out again to a counter.
1967 J. G. Wills Nucl. Power Plant Technol. 318 ‘Rabbits’ often consist of small cylinders of aluminium or plastic, moved by air pressure through a long pipe.
2006 Food Control 17 524/1 The samples..were heat sealed in a plastic tube and irradiated simultaneously with an appropriate aliquot of standard solution in a rabbit.
b. = pig n.1 16.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > oil and natural gas recovery equipment > [noun] > pipe-line > devices for laying or clearing
go-devil1885
scraper1897
pig1949
rabbit1949
laybarge1956
1949 Amer. Speech 24 33 The piece of steel or iron dropped or pushed through racked pipe to remove obstructions is known as a rabbit.
1975 G. Anderson Coring v. 95 The core is not completely out of the barrel until a metal slug, called ‘the rabbit’, appears.
Phrases
P1. slang. to buy the rabbit: to get the worst of a deal, to fare badly. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > fail or be unsuccessful [verb (intransitive)] > specifically of persons
miscarry1602
to come off bluely1654
to buy the rabbit1807
flunk1823
to go wrong1827
slip1890
to fall (also go) by the wayside1898
crack1918
to go down the tube(s)1963
1807 C. I. M. Dibdin Mirth & Metre 158 You and I know clients buy the rabbit every day.
1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan II. xviii. 156 If that air invoice aint ready soon, thee'll buy the rabbit, I guess!
1935 A. 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.
P2. to pull (take, etc.) a rabbit out of a hat and variants: (of a conjuror) to produce a rabbit from a hat, as part of an illusion; hence in figurative or allusive use, with reference to an action that is fortuitous, surprising, or involves an element of deception. Also in similative phrases.
ΚΠ
1836 A.B. Engstrom Humorous Magician Unmasked 88 Experiment No. 36. To produce a live rabbit and a number of other articles from a gentleman's hat.
1872 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 345/2 For the purpose of..bringing a rabbit or other article into a hat, etc.
1877 E. Sachs Sleight of Hand xviii. 183 The production of..rabbits from a hat is always very startling.
1906 R. Kipling 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.
1940 A. Christie Sad Cypress ii. ii. 121 You want me..to be the conjuror. To take out of the empty hat rabbit after rabbit.
1967 Guardian 21 Sept. 7/1 Will man..control or stop the ever increasing flow of white rabbits..out of our technological top hats?
1975 Times 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.
1993 R. Murphy Smash & Grab x. 124/2 On the second (and final) day of the trial the defence produced, like a rabbit from a hat, a much more impressive witness.
2003 N.Y. Times 21 Dec. 30/2 (headline) Libya's ‘brother leader’ pulls yet another rabbit out of his hat.
P3. colloquial. like rabbits and variants: (with reference to reproduction) quickly and prolifically; (with reference to sexual activity) very frequently and energetically.
ΚΠ
1897 E. Bellamy Equality xxxviii. 364 Wherever the poverty and squalor chiefly abounded..humankind multiplied like rabbits.
1936 B. Penton Inheritors ix. 72 They'd knacker us white bushmen if they got the chance and let them Chows and Jimmy Tannas breed like rabbits.
1972 P. McCartney Hi, Hi, Hi, plus C Moon 6 Go like a rabbit, gonna grab it, gonna do it 'til the night is done.
1980 W. Abish How German is It? iii. xxiii. 150 Egon and his current girl friend going at it like rabbits.
1999 Detroit Free Press (Nexis) 11 Oct. 1 a The reason the world's population exploded in the 20th Century was not because people started breeding like rabbits... It's because they stopped dropping like flies.
2006 Toronto Sun (Nexis) 12 Feb. 39 I also get to go grab a girl from a coffee shop and shag like rabbits.
P4. In plural. Also white rabbits. Uttered for good luck, esp. on the first day of a month.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > enchantment or casting spells > [noun] > spell > incantation > word used in or as
abracadabra1565
hocus-pocus1632
prestoa1640
abraxas1713
abrasax1737
sesame1785
open sesame1814
karakia1832
white rabbits1905
1905 Academy 7 Jan. 22/2 Many children believe that if, on the first day of the month, they succeed in saying the word ‘Rabbits’ before it is said to them, they will receive a present.
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.
1949 H. Nicolson Diary 31 Dec. (1968) 178 I hear the clock strike midnight and say ‘rabbits’... That is the end of 1949.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren 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.’
1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) xii. 370 Besides, behind her back, rabbitsrabbits, she's crossing her treacherous fingers.
2006 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 2 Nov. 9 I have said ‘White Rabbits’ at the very moment of waking on every single first day of every single month that has passed. My mother..told me to do it, to bring good fortune.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive.
rabbit blood n.
ΚΠ
1903 Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc. 35 87 They smeared rabbit blood on their arrows.
2003 Cell Stress & Chaperones 8 78/1 Rabbit blood was collected by carotid puncture.
rabbit burrow n.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Oryctolagus (rabbit) > burrow or warren
clapperc1400
cunnigar1424
warrena1425
coneygarth1429
coney-close?1472
coney hole?c1475
berry1486
coney holda1500
coney-clapper1530
coney yard1532
coneyry1570
coney burrow1575
coney gratec1580
coney-gat1591
coney green1599
coney warren1616
coney ground1617
rabbit hole1667
stop1669
rabbit burrow1723
stock1736
rabbit warren1766
stab1838
warrener1864
1723 J. Barker Patch-work Screen for Ladies Introd. She lost her Way, and got..into a fine Park, amongst..Rabbet-burrows, and such like.
1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leics. 420 A gallant fox getting to ground in a rabbit-burrow.
2000 Britannia 31 273 Mixed black earth from rabbit burrows.
rabbit farm n.
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1796 W. Marshall Rural Econ. Yorks. (ed. 2) II. Contents p. xviii General Economy of a Rabbit Farm.
1882 Times 2 Nov. 3/1 The spot selected is a holding of 210 acres on the Earl of Lovelace's property, not far distant from the rabbit farm on the same estate.
2006 Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nexis) 5 Nov. e6 He owned a rabbit farm.
rabbit fence n.
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1839 Times 13 Mar. 8/2 Wire-work for hare and rabbit fence.
1944 F. Clune Red Heart 53 Colson travelled on to Birdsville, crossing the old rabbit fence (built in 1886) to keep vermin out of Queensland.
2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Nexis) 16 Sept. 20 We are considering a rabbit fence because we live near a park where people just dump their unwanted pet bunnies.
rabbit fur n.
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1724 T. Townsend tr. A. de Solis Hist. Conquest Mexico iii. xiii. 71 They brought to this Fair all the different Sorts of Cloths made throughout this vast Empire, of Cotton and Rabbit Furr.
1873 Pract. Mag. 1 282 (heading) Rabbit fur as a substitute for wool and cotton.
2005 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 19/2 Rabbit-fur gilets and jackets tossed over silk jersey dresses.
rabbit house n.
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1737 Proc. Session of Peace London & Middlesex 19/2 So we came down together to the Rabbit House.
1882 Manitoba Daily Free Press 27 Nov. 1/6 At 1 o'clock in the morning, he heard a noise at the rabbit-house.
1990 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 9 Sept. Ducks keep the insect level down in the rabbit house.
rabbit meat n.
ΚΠ
1860 Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gaz. 20 Sept. It is said that in certain restaurants in our great cities, cat-meat is sometimes served up for rabbit meat.
2002 C. Briones & J. L. Lanata Contemp. Perspectives on Native Peoples 83 Hare and rabbit meat adds diversity to the everyday diet.
rabbit netting n.
ΚΠ
1876 Times 18 Feb. 4/5 A piece of wire rabbit netting against the stone fretwork of the wall is plainly seen.
1997 A. Raife Larach viii. 83 She tottered about carrying larch stobs and knee-buckling rolls of rabbit netting.
rabbit pie n.
ΚΠ
1628 List of Provis. in Yorks. Family Historian (1993) Dec. 143 Rabbitt pye.
1780 S. Kellet et al. Compl. Coll. Cookery Receipts 10 You may make a rabbit pie the same way, only white wine in place of red.
1896 Times 11 Aug. 8/1 The circumstances attending the death of Crawley, on July 18, after eating rabbit-pie.
2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 22 Nov. 81 England fans devour rabbit pie in the Pig 'N' Whistle.
rabbit pudding n.
ΚΠ
1776 B. Clermont tr. Professed Cook (ed. 3) 158 (heading) Rabbit Puddings.
1836 I. Roberts Young Cook's Guide 107 Rabbit pudding garnished with truffles.
1940 Brit. Red Cross Soc. Cookery & Catering Man. (ed. 4) xix. 187 Rabbit pudding... Make a paste and cover the meat in the steaming pans or camp kettles.
2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 18 Dec. 3 Typical dishes were braised lamb shank and minted whipped potato with a red berry glaze and steamed West Country rabbit pudding.
rabbit snare n.
ΚΠ
1828 J. McGillivray in G. Simpson Part of Dispatch (1947) 209 He went away under the plea of visiting some Rabbit snares.
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 664/3 Rabbit snares..A few made up ready for use generally in stock.
2006 Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (Nexis) 24 June d9 The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits.
rabbit soup n.
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1834 J. Wilson Noctes Ambrosianae lxviii, in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 586 Partridge-soup, hare-soup, rabbit-soup.
1890 Manitoba Daily Free Press 16 July 6/2 He dilated on the delectableness of rabbit soup.
2001 W. Jingzhong in S. Harrell Perspectives on Yi ii. 41 [He] did not eat rabbit meat or rabbit soup.
rabbit trap n.
ΚΠ
1753 Pocket Dict. at Hay A rabbet trap.
1824 Cobbett'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.
1996 A. Yoshimura Shipwrecks 41 The men who set rabbit traps in the woods returned to the village.
rabbit wire n.
ΚΠ
1891 Arizona Republican 10 Apr. James McMillan..sent out to his ranch..a load of rabbit wire.
1992 H. Mitchell One Man's Garden xii. 250 Other useful gifts are a bale of hay, a batch of burlap, some rabbit wire (or hardware cloth, as it is known up here).
b. Objective.
rabbit chase n.
ΚΠ
1859 Central City (Syracuse, N.Y.) Daily Courier 15 Jan. The rabbit chase..on the Pavillion Course on the afternoon of Thursday last.
1983 Music Educators Jrnl. 69 37/2 I felt like a dog with its tongue hanging out after a long rabbit chase.
rabbit-chasing adj. and n.
ΚΠ
1895 Outing 26 426/2 The rabbit-chasing pups.
1928 Times 30 Aug. 8/4 It appears to be impossible to get a hold of a useful rabbit-chasing ferret, for love or money.
2006 Lincoln (Nebraska) Jrnl. Star (Nexis) 31 Oct. b1 Just ask him about the rabbit-chasing beagle.
rabbit courser n.
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1875 Chambers Jrnl. 254/1 Manchester..being the headquarters of the rabbit-courser.
1967 Times 6 May 8/4 From their original function as rabbit coursers, their adaptation to racing has been as natural as that of greyhounds to the track.
rabbit-coursing n.
ΚΠ
1853 Times 17 May 8/3 Pigeonshooting, Pedestrianism, Trotting, Ratting, Rabbit Coursing.
1961 M. Kiddle Men of Yesterday xviii. 459 By the seventies rabbit-coursing and pigeon-shooting matches took place on Belmont common.
2004 Essex Chron. (Nexis) 30 Sept. 5 She's a lurcher type..so we thought it was a possibility that gypsies had taken her for rabbit coursing.
rabbit-destroyer n.
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1883 Cassell's Family Mag. 623/2 It [sc. the Indian mongoose] may prove a more successful rabbit-destroyer than any hitherto thought of.
1940 Times 8 Jan. 12/4 Another suggestion..is to employ them as rabbit destroyers.
rabbit-fancier n.
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1822 M. Edgeworth Let. 19 Jan. (1971) 326 He explained to me what is meant by being in the fancy—pigeon fanciers—rabbit fanciers &c.
1848 S. Maunder Treasury Nat. Hist. 560/1 The ingenuity of Rabbit-fanciers has been shown in the production of various breeds.
2006 Weekend Austral. (Nexis) 9 Sept. 8 I'm not a rabbit fancier, either cooked or uncooked.
rabbit farmer n.
ΚΠ
1885 Times 23 Sept. 15/2 To..Racing Men..Rabbit Farmers, Investors, and others.
2003 M. Markuš in P. Mosley & E. Dowler Poverty & Social Exclusion xii. 238 We have also helped to form a cluster of small rabbit farmers around Jozef Sajben.
rabbit-farming n.
ΚΠ
1870 Times 17 Mar. 6/2 In certain sandy soils rabbit farming was the most profitable use to which the land could be put.
1949 A. H. Clark Invasion N.Z. (1950) iii. ix. 264 It is said that many..have taken to rabbit-farming..to realize some ready cash.
1997 New Scientist 15 Nov. 53/2 Tin working, peat cutting, charcoal burning, and rabbit farming have all left their mark on the palimpsest of today's moor.
rabbit hunt n.
ΚΠ
1791 J. Byng Diary 9 July in C. B. Andrews Torrington Diaries (1935) II. 380 From these ruins, whereon we prowled for some time, we had a good rabbet hunt.
1835 A. B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes 186 Having often been with them in the deer and rabbit hunt.
1931 Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. 34 112 In a county-wide rabbit hunt in Rush county on December 26, 1930, 6,200 jackrabbits were killed.
2007 Dunnville (Ont.) Chron. (Nexis) 10 Jan. b1 Alfie, our mutual hunting friend, co-ordinated the rabbit hunt with three farmers who wanted the pests removed.
rabbit hunt v.
ΚΠ
1867 Davenport (Iowa) Daily Gaz. 11 Dec. A wild cat was killed near Anamosa..by John Fell, who was out rabbit hunting.
1943 J. Stuart Taps for Private Tussie xvii. 172 Uncle Mott cut wood for the fireplace in the mornins and rabbit-hunted in the afternoons.
2005 Indianapolis Star (Nexis) 19 May 1 s I met..a man I rabbit hunted with 40 years ago.
rabbit-hunting n.
ΚΠ
1733 P. Shaw tr. F. Bacon Coll. Apophthegms in Philos. Wks. I. 515 A parcel of Scholars going a Rabbit-hunting, carried a Scholar with them, who had not much more Wit than he was born with.
1873 Trans. Dept. Agric. State Illinois 1872 10 65 They prevailed on him to suspend his rabbit-hunting, and ‘show them 'round’.
1995 Visit'n: Conversat. with Vermonters (Vermont Folklife Center) 38/2 We'd get a good snowstorm in the fall of the year—light snowstorm, something that would make good rabbit hunting.
rabbit inspector n.
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1882 Hagerstown (Maryland) Odd Fellow 30 Nov. 1/7 It is proposed that each colony shall appoint a staff of rabbit inspectors to enforce repressive legislation.
1987 P. L. Christie Candles & Canvas 121 The local county council employed a full-time rabbit inspector to visit farmers.
rabbit-keeper n.
ΚΠ
1754 W. Ellis Compl. Cyderman x. 107 The old experienced Rabbit-Keeper sneeringly says, He'll soon give over.
1848 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) I. 628/2 Experienced rabbit-keepers conceive too frequent breeding to be injurious.
1987 C. Gilligan in E. F. Kittay & D. T. Meyers Women & Moral Theory i. i. 20 A bird-watcher and a rabbit-keeper are likely to see the duck-rabbit figure in different ways.
rabbit-management n.
ΚΠ
1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1203 The hazard and uncertainty of rabbit-management.
1927 Van Nuys (Calif.) News 29 Mar. 6/2 Owensmouth grammar school was represented by Sam Taylor and Merrill Toby, who made up a demonstration team on rabbit management.
2006 Contract Jrnl. (Nexis) 9 Aug. 1 CIRIA has launched a new guide to rabbit management.
rabbit-rearer n.
ΚΠ
1848 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) I. 629/1 The duty of the rabbit-rearer.
1975 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 16 Oct. 8/1 If the rabbit rearer is to make a profit, he has to buy imported feed.
rabbit seller n.
ΚΠ
1796 Times 5 Oct. 3 Market Women, Rabbit Sellers, Fish Cryers.., are regularly supplied with counterfeit Copper and Silver.
1899 H. M. Knowlton Art-life William Morris Hunt vi. 62 Hunt's first room in Barbison was owned by Jean Gatelier, a rabbit-seller.
2002 J. Keegan Who's Who in World War II 161 Trepper, known as the Big Chef, was able to evade arrest by posing as a rabbit-seller.
rabbit-shooting n.
ΚΠ
1789 tr. G. F. Magné De Marolles Ess. Shooting xii. 178 It will serve also for rabbit shooting.
1813 J. M. Good et al. Pantologia (at cited word) An occasional reduction..is found necessary..in which case rabbit-shooting is a pleasant diversion.
1909 ‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny xviii. 294 Once he went rabbit-shooting in Yonkers.
2007 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 3 Feb. Hogan has loved animals since he was a boy and never went bird-nesting or rabbit shooting.
rabbit trapper n.
ΚΠ
1839 P. Hone Diary 23 Apr. (1889) I. 354 A new picture of Mount's, ‘The Rabbit Trappers’, which he has painted for Mr. Charles A. Davis.
1910 Times 18 Jan. 3/5 Walter Wensley, 20, rabbit trapper..pleaded ‘guilty’ to night-poaching.
2006 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 26 Dec. 70 Ron Sells, a rabbit trapper, reported seeing a near-naked woman on the Nullarbor Plain living with a mob of kangaroos.
rabbit-trapping n.
ΚΠ
1880 W. Carnegie Pract. Trapping 20 The same sort of gins, the use of which I advocated for rabbit-trapping, will do.
1906 Times 24 Mar. 4/5 Rabbit trapping..has done harm to the sport in late years.
2006 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 28 Nov. 24 In the early years of the 20th century..rabbit trapping was a good source of income for many.
rabbit catcher n.
ΚΠ
1678 E. Howard Man of Newmarket iii. ii. 30 Here's one of Sir Ralph Nonsuch his Rabbet-catchers: There's scarce a Ferret sees further into a Coney-hole.
1780 J. O'Keeffe Tony Lumpkin in Town ii. 30 You're the first rabbit catcher I ever knew.
1831 Times 8 Apr. 6/4 William Creed was employed by Mr. Kingscote as a rabbit-catcher.
2006 Cornishman (Nexis) 12 Oct. 29 The money paid in by members went into a kitty to pay for a professional rabbit catcher.
c. Similative and parasynthetic.
rabbit-backed adj.
ΚΠ
a1777 S. Foote Trip to Calais (1778) iii. 75 Red-faced, rabbet-back'd.
1809 T. E. Hook Safe & Sound i. iii. 23 She used to nurse me—rabbit backed, ferret eyed, as thin as a thread paper, and as tall as a church steeple.
1944 Berkshire Evening Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) 10 Feb. 12/8 What kind of rabbit-backed people are these anyway?
rabbit-coloured adj.
ΚΠ
1914 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 5 Dec. 1/2 This old skate With rabbit-colored whiskers, left the town.
1953 R. Graves Poems 18 Such gross-headed, rabbit-coloured litters As soon they shall be happy to desert.
1994 Times (Nexis) 15 Jan. That northwest bit dotted with lonely bungalows, rabbit-coloured grass and grey rock.
rabbit-faced adj.
ΚΠ
1873 ‘J. Morris’ Wanderings of Vagabond xiv. 143 Did you ever notice how skeered that rabbit-faced feller, Cotton, is o' him?
1961 G. Reitlinger Econ. of Taste I. i. iii. 79 Lord Hertford bought this rabbit-faced child.
2002 N.Y. Post (Nexis) 15 Dec. 71 He is little, rabbit-faced and frail.
rabbit-hearted adj.
ΚΠ
1905 Commerce (Texas) Jrnl. 27 Jan. 6/5 It is seen that you are as rabbit-hearted as the boy who makes her such an offer.
1960 R. H. Blum Managem. Doctor-Patient Relationship ii. 48 Even the rabbit-hearted among us are loathe to expose ourselves to the ridicule or pity of those stronger, braver, and wiser souls around us.
2003 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 10 Oct. e4 Even blinky, rabbit-hearted witch Willow gets to beat up and slay vampires.
rabbit mouth n.
ΚΠ
1778 J. Hunter Pract. Treat. Dis. Teeth vi. 79 The upper jaw..projects forwards considerably over the lower, giving the appearance of the rabbit-mouth.
1833 B. Disraeli Let. 29 June in Corr. with Sister (1886) 21 Handsome..but with one great fault, a rabbit mouth.
1996 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 6 May c9 Her tiny rabbit mouth and distorted cheeks twist a literal picture of Anglo-Saxon beauty into something darker, crueler.
rabbit-mouthed adj.
ΚΠ
1697 J. Evelyn Numismata ix. 293 Some are conspicuous for their Aquiline Noses..others are Sheepish, Hog-jaw'd, Rabbet-mouth'd.
1855 Brit. Q. Rev. Oct. 472 This rabbit-mouthed lord was riding with Maud and her brother.
1987 I. Sinclair White Chappell Scarlet Tracings vi. 50 A smile, stumps of teeth, broken pencils, rabbit mouthed.
rabbit-scared adj.
ΚΠ
1936 Partisan Rev. 3 21/1 Standing there, his big gun smoking, Rabbit-scared, alone.
1971 Maclean's Oct. 3/2 We've never seemed so rabbit-scared as a nation as we did in August.
rabbit-shoulder n.
ΚΠ
a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 94 The excesses and deficiencies in the human form..rabbit shoulders, pot belly.
rabbit-toothed adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > types or spec. teeth > [adjective] > projecting
gag-toothed1578
gobber-toothed1655
butter-toothed1688
gubber-tushed1688
rabbit-toothed1800
buck-toothed1863
1800 D. Wordsworth Jrnl. 14 May (1941) I. 37 The grassy-leaved rabbit-toothed white flower.
1963 D. Lessing Golden Notebk. ii. 246 His mouth is a rabbit-toothed hole, and his eyes are sunk in scar tissue.
2006 Daily Star (Nexis) 30 June 3 You can deploy the rabbit-toothed magician to crack open your beers.
d. Instrumental.
rabbit-browsed adj.
ΚΠ
1923 R. Kipling Land & Sea Tales 81 A little rabbit-browsed clearing of turf.
rabbit-haunted adj.
ΚΠ
1895 News (Frederick, Maryland) 15 Feb. How rang the..valley and the rabbit haunted glades.
1921 F. B. Young Black Diamond iv. 38 Evening visits to rabbit-haunted banks.
1962 Times 5 May 10/6 Her mate stood, surveying in the spring sunshine the rabbit haunted slopes far below him.
rabbit-nibbled adj.
ΚΠ
1925 Jrnl. Ecol. 13 191 A conspicuous feature was 16 tall flowering plants..within the enclosure, there being none on the rabbit-nibbled turf outside.
1961 R. A. W. Hughes Fox in Attic (1962) i. xii. 51 There was only a thin skin of rabbit-nibbled turf that was more thyme than grass.
2000 Sunday Times (Nexis) 26 Mar. Then comes another climb up the rabbit-nibbled slopes of Doghouse Hill.
C2. In the names of plants and animals.† rabbit-moth n. U.S. Obsolete rare the puss caterpillar (moth), Megalopyge opercularis.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.† rabbit-squirrel n. Obsolete rare each of three long-eared and long-tailed rodents constituting the genus Lagidium (family Chinchillidae), found in mountains from Peru to Patagonia; a mountain viscacha.
rabbit bandicoot n. = rabbit-eared bandicoot n. at rabbit-eared adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Implacenta > subclass Marsupialia (marsupials) > [noun] > family Peramelidae > genus Macrotis (rabbit-bandicoot)
rabbit bandicoot1832
bilby1903
1832 J. Bischoff Sketch Hist. Van Diemen's Land II. 28 There are two kinds, the rat and the rabbit bandicoot.
1923 F. 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.
1994 New Scientist 21 May 13/1 It [sc. the cat] stands accused of hunting some of the country's most endangered animals, including the rabbit bandicoot or bilby, the golden bandicoot and burrowing bettong.
rabbit berry n. (also †rabbits' berry) North American the red berry of a large North American shrub, Shepherdia argentea (family Elaeagnaceae); the shrub itself, also called silver buffalo-berry.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > edible berries > soapberry
rabbit berry1804
buffalo-berry1805
bulberry1841
soapberry1904
1804 P. Gass Jrnl. 24 Aug. (1807) 29 Small red berries, the Indian name for which in English means rabbit berries.
1839 Knickerbocker Mag. 13 432 We found, on the west bank, a kind of large whortleberry, called wabosimin, or rabbits'-berry, by the Odjibwas.
1879 Manitoba Daily Free Press 12 Dec. 2/2 The buffalo berry..is also called the rabbit berry, probably from the circumstance that its abundant edible red berries are favourite food of that dainty animal.
1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 454 S. argentea, ‘Rabbit Berry’, ‘Buffalo Berry’,..scarlet fruits.
rabbit brush n. North American = rabbit bush n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > shrubs > non-British shrubs > [noun] > North-American
wild tea1728
bastard indigo1730
mountain heath1731
groundsel-tree1736
amorpha1751
buttonbush1754
moosewood1778
pipestem wood1791
modesty1809
sand myrtle1814
wicopy1823
lead-plant1833
false indigo1841
sleek-leaf1845
arrow weed1848
rabbit bush1852
ribbonwood1860
rabbit brush1877
sea myrtle1883
pencil tree1884
tar-bush1884
ocean spray1906
1877 Daily Nevada State Jrnl. 14 June 1/2 There is no timber—nor any sage-brush proper. Rabbit-brush, buck-brush and greasewood cover the face of the whole country.
1914 E. 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.
2004 New Yorker 26 July 79/1 She got Mitchell to pour the contents of the twenty-pound bags directly on the ground near a clump of rabbitbrush.
rabbit bush n. North American any of various pungently scented shrubs constituting the genus Chrysothamnus (family Asteraceae ( Compositae)) and occurring in drier areas of western North America, which have small, typically yellow, rayless heads in dense clusters and are closely related to goldenrod (genus Solidago).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > shrubs > non-British shrubs > [noun] > North-American
wild tea1728
bastard indigo1730
mountain heath1731
groundsel-tree1736
amorpha1751
buttonbush1754
moosewood1778
pipestem wood1791
modesty1809
sand myrtle1814
wicopy1823
lead-plant1833
false indigo1841
sleek-leaf1845
arrow weed1848
rabbit bush1852
ribbonwood1860
rabbit brush1877
sea myrtle1883
pencil tree1884
tar-bush1884
ocean spray1906
1852 H. Stansbury Explor. & Surv. Valley Great Salt Lake (U.S. Army: Corps Topogr. Engineers) 235 The only vegetation today has been a little dwarf artemisia, grease-bush, rabbit-bush.
1914 E. P. Stewart Lett. Woman Homesteader xvi. 161 Everywhere purple asters were a blaze of glory except where the rabbit-bush grew in clumps, waving its feathery plumes of gold.
1993 H. Rhenisch Out of Interior i. 9 A young eagle landed on the ripped-up sod... There in the sage and rabbitbush below the cliffs, they set it loose.
rabbit flea n. any of several fleas which infest rabbits, esp. Spilopsyllus cuniculi of Europe and Cediopsylla simplex of North America.The European rabbit flea is the chief vector of the myxoma virus.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Siphonaptera or fleas > [noun] > member of family Pulicidae (rabbit flea)
rabbit flea1904
1904 Proc. U.S. National Mus. 27 368 In the United States the cat, dog, and rabbit fleas..will readily attack the human being.
1925 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. iii. 663 The rabbit flea..commonly affects the ears of hares and rabbits.
1967 J. M. Brownjohn tr. Grzimek Four-legged Australians xii. 250 For some years, European rabbit-fleas refused to propagate themselves in Australian research centres.
1997 New Scientist 19 Apr. 54/2 If the calcivirus works half as well as the combined efforts of the myxoma virus and the European rabbit flea, it will add tremendously to Australia's wealth and wellbeing.
rabbit-hawk n. U.S. any of several birds of prey that are thought to feed on rabbits; esp. the red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, and the hen harrier, Circus cyaneus.
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the world > animals > birds > order Falconiformes (falcons, etc.) > family Accipitridae (hawks, etc.) > [noun] > genus Circus (harrier) > circus cynaeus (hen-harrier)
St Martin's fowl?a1513
hen harrier1544
grey falcon1678
faller1848
rabbit-hawk1851
miller1885
St Martin's bird1894
the world > animals > birds > order Falconiformes (falcons, etc.) > family Accipitridae (hawks, etc.) > [noun] > genus Buteo (buzzard) > buteo jamaicensis (red-tailed hawk)
hen hawk1742
red-tailed hawk1805
redtail1812
red-tailed buzzard1832
rabbit-hawk1851
1851 De Bow's Rev. July 54 Hawks of five kinds, and all numerous. 1st, Rabbit Hawk; 2d, Hen Hawk; [etc.].
1880 G. W. Cable Grandissimes vii. 43 A great rabbit-hawk sat alone in the top of a lofty pecan-tree.
1949 A. Sprunt & E. B. Chamberlain S. Carolina Bird Life 159 Eastern Red-tailed Hawk... Local names: Hen-hawk; Rabbit-hawk.
1964 Publ. 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.
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1890 Cent. Dict. Rabbit-moth, the bombycid moth Lagoa opercularis.
rabbit-mouth sucker n. U.S. (now rare) a fish, the harelip sucker, Moxostoma lacerum (family Catastomidae), which has the lower lip divided into two lobes, formerly found in the eastern United States and now extinct.
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1882 D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 144 Quassilabia lacera, Hare-lip Sucker..Rabbit-mouth Sucker.
1911 Rep. Comm. U.S. Bureau Fisheries 1908 317 The different species [of sucker] are known as..‘rabbit-mouth’, ‘harelip’, ‘split mouth’, ‘red horse’ [etc.].
rabbit pea n. (also rabbit's pea) a vetchlike leguminous plant of the eastern United States, Tephrosia virginiana, having bicoloured (yellowish and pink) flowers; also called goat's rue, hoary pea.
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1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Add. Rabbit pea, the goat's rue. U.S.
1938 M. K. Rawlings Yearling xvii. 199 A rabbit-pea vine was in blossom.
1976 Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 1101/1 Tephrosia..virginiana..Goat's rue, catgut, rabbit's pea.
1993 T. Coffey Hist. & Folklore N. Amer. Plants 131/1 Goat's-Rue... Catgut, Devil's-Shoestrings, Hoary-Pea, Rabbit-Pea... The plant smells of goat. Toxic to grazing animals.
rabbit rat n. (a) any of several large Australian tree rats constituting the genera Conilurus and Mesembriomys, which have relatively long ears and a long tail; (b) Australian (now rare) = rabbit-eared bandicoot n. at rabbit-eared adj. Compounds.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > superfamily Myomorpha (mouse, rat, vole, or hamster) > [noun] > family Muridae > other types of mouse or rat
rock rat1781
Otomys1834
rabbit rat1837
deer-mouse1840
bamboo rat1881
muskrat1884
sigmodont1884
grasshopper mouse1888
veld rat1905
striped mouse1932
Sprague-Dawley1951
1837 G. Bennett Catal. Specimens Nat. Hist. Austral. Mus. 6 The Rabbit Rat of the Colonists. Habitat, Interior of Australia.
1900 Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Mar. 14/3 The bilby..is common in Western Queensland..where..it is called the ‘rabbit-rat’.
1941 E. Troughton Furred Animals Austral. 305 The various species [of Mesembriomys and Conilurus]..are sometimes called ‘rabbit-rats’ in reference to the rather large ears.
1991 R. M. Nowak Walker's Mammals of World (ed. 5) II. 816/1 Rabbit rats [sc. Conilurus species] are found in a variety of habitats—beaches along salt water, swamps, grassy plains, and well-timbered areas.
rabbit root n. now rare or historical wild sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis, the root of which was used medicinally by North American Indians; the root of this plant.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular medicinal plants or parts > non-British medicinal plants > [noun] > sarsaparilla and other medicinal smilax plants
arbor vine1562
sarsaparilla1577
smilax1601
Carolina China-root1673
Botany Bay tea1728
sweet tea1728
German sarsaparilla1821
rabbit root1834
1834 J. Richardson in W. J. Hooker Flora Boreali-americana I. 274 The Crees use the root of this plant as a remedy against the venereal disease, under the name of Wawpoos-ootchepeh, (Rabbit-root).
1870 R. Bentley Man. Bot. (ed. 2) ii. iii. 561 Under the name of Rabbit roots they have been also used as a remedy in syphilis by the Crees, in North America.
1931 M. Grieve Mod. Herbal (1967) II. 713/2 Sarsaparilla, American. Aralia nudicaulis... It is said to be used by the Crees under the name of Rabbit Root for syphilis and as an application to recent wounds.
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1884 Standard Nat. Hist. V. 86 If the foregoing [species of Lagidium] be called rabbit-squirrels, the Chinchilla itself (C. lanigera) may be termed a pika-squirrel.
rabbit thistle n. Caribbean rare a thistle-like plant, Tridax procumbens (family Asteraceae ( Compositae)), having cream-coloured rays and yellow disc and widely naturalized in the Caribbean.
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1934 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 13 Aug. 23/5 The well-known bushes which are used for Rabbit feeding at the present time are: Rabbit thistle, Hog-meat vine, Calalu, [etc.].
1993 S. Carrington Wild Plants Barbados 110/1 Tridax procumbens L. Rabbit Thistle... Native to Tropical America, widely naturalised; common; roadside weed.
rabbit weed n. rare †(a) a thistle-like plant of the Caribbean, perhaps = rabbit thistle n. (obsolete); (b) any of several North American weeds of the family Asteraceae ( Compositae), esp. Hymenoxys richardsonii var. floribunda and Gutierrezia sarothrae, both of which are woody plants with clusters of small yellow ray flowers; (c) the tropical plant Priva lappulacea (family Verbenaceae).
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1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados vi. 172 The Thistle, or Rabbit-weed.
1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 502/2 Sorry bunch-grass and sad rabbit-weed.
1904 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 31 461 In Colorado, the plant in question [sc. Picradenia floribunda utilis] is sometimes referred to as rabbit-weed; but I believe that several Compositae are confused under this name.
1981 E. S. Ayensu Medicinal Plants W. Indies 192 Priva lappulacea..clammy bur,..velvet bur, bur bush, rabbit weed... Area: Jam[aica].
C3. † rabbit beagle n. Obsolete a beagle (hound) used for hunting rabbits.† rabbit hay n. Obsolete a hay (hay n.3) or net used for catching rabbits.† rabbit-starter n. Obsolete a young rabbit.
rabbit ball n. Baseball a baseball deemed to have a livelier bounce than is usual; a ball that can be easily hit for a long distance.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > equipment
willow1846
baseball1853
bat1856
baseball bat1858
base bag1863
baseball glove1884
apple1902
rabbit ball1907
joystick1908
1907 New Castle (Pa.) News 17 May 15/1 When the locals started in to pound Pitcher Hawks to all parts of the lot Manager Smith was certain that a ‘Rabbit ball’ was being used.
1937 Sun (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.
2004 W. Stewart Pitching Secrets of Pros xi. 146 The quality of baseballs is now generally pretty standard, but over the years baseballs have been as mushy as a stewed vegetable and as lively as the proverbial rabbit ball.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > hound > [noun] > beagle
beagle?c1475
beagle-hound1552
fox-beagle1676
beagle-dog1706
basket-beagle1823
rabbit beagle1824
1824 Sporting Mag. 14 312/2 There is no prettier sport for youth than rabbit beagling... Rabbit beagles should never be permitted to run hare.
1880 H. Dalziel Brit. Dogs i. xiii. 80 Beagles may be fairly classified as hare Beagles and rabbit Beagles, other distinction than size being minor.
rabbit-beagling n. the action or practice of using beagles for hunting rabbits.
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1824 Sporting Mag. 14 312/2 There is no prettier sport for youth than rabbit beagling.
rabbit board n. Australian and New Zealand (also with capital initials) a (local) body responsible for the management and control of the rabbit population.
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1891 Act (Queensland) 55 Vict. c. 30 This Act may be cited as ‘The Rabbit Board Act of 1891’... In this Act..the following terms shall have the meanings set against them..‘Board’—The Rabbit Board of the District.
1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. July 74/1 In 1942 a rabbit board was set up in the area and the operations of this board have brought the rabbit pest completely under control.
2006 Sunday Mail (S. Austral.) (Nexis) 21 May 18 The rabbit board receives almost $1 million a year from local authorities to maintain the fence.
rabbit-breeder n. a person who breeds rabbits.In quots. 1726 and 1814 with reference to Mary Toft, who in 1726 infamously claimed to have given birth to 17 rabbits.
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1726 R. Manningham (title) An exact diary of what was observ'd during a close attendance upon Mary Toft, the pretended rabbet-breeder of Godalming in Surrey.
1814 Times 2 Sept. 2/3 Mary Tofts [sic], the rabbit-breeder..would not have gone on so long as she did, had it not been for the ridiculous part which some medical men took on that occasion.
1851 Times 27 Oct. 6/6 These men will not..insist upon their labourers becoming bee-feeders, rabbit-breeders, and pigeon-fanciers.
1925 Amer. Naturalist 59 281 A skilled rabbit breeder in Holland has actually made under controlled conditions a cross between a male hare and a female rabbit.
1990 Toronto Star (Nexis) 19 Apr. e2 That's where he learns some of the secrets of other rabbit breeders.
rabbit-breeding n. the action or practice of breeding rabbits.For quot. 1726 see note at rabbit-breeder n.
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1726 in Catal. Prints: Polit. & Personal Satires (Brit. Mus.) (1873) II. 640 Being a Representation of ye Frauds by which ye Godliman Woman, carried on her pretended Rabbit Breeding.
1736 J. Douglas Short Acct. Midwifery 53 Might he not as properly have introduced what he had to say about Midwifery, with an account of Rat-catching, Rabbit-breeding, or Sow-gelding?
1848 S. Maunder Treasury Nat. Hist. 560/1 Otherwise..will..Rabbit-breeding turn out a losing speculation.
2003 M. B. Hooker Indonesian Islam 216 The government introduced rabbit breeding as both a source of income for peasants and an extra source of available protein.
rabbit-cleve n. English regional (south-western) a cleve (cleeve n. 2) or slope inhabited by rabbits.
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1869 R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone I. xiii. 152 I went all along on the ridge of the rabbit-cleve.
rabbit dance n. North American a North American Indian dance in which women choose their partners and couples move in a circular formation while holding hands.Many theories are proposed as to the reason for this name, but none of them is supported by reliable historical evidence. Perhaps the most plausible is that it relates to the bouncing movement of the dancers.
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1892 W. Pike Barren Ground N. Canada xiv. 233 The moose-dance, rabbit-dance, and duck-dance were kept up till the small hours.
1959 Times 18 June 11 The Stony Indians wear ceremonial costumes to do the Owl dance and the Rabbit dance.
1996 B. Maracle Back on Rez ii. vi. 28 I remember the evenings he spent trying to instruct me in the intricacies of the language, the drum, the rattle and the Rabbit Dance.
rabbit dog n. a dog used in the hunting of rabbits; cf. rabbit beagle n.
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1763 R. Brookes New Syst. Nat. Hist. I. 227 The Tumbler..looks like a small greyhound, and is most commonly known by the name of a Rabbit Dog.
1859 ‘Stonehenge’ Shot-gun 77 The Dandie Dinmont..is an excellent rabbit dog.
1948 W. Faulkner Intruder in Dust (1949) i. 5 A true rabbit dog, some hound, a good deal of hound, maybe mostly hound..with maybe a little pointer somewhere once.
2006 St. John's (Newfoundland) Telegram (Nexis) 21 Jan. c9 These past seven years he hasn't been using the well-known rabbit dog, the beagle, but instead he has been running rabbits with a German Short Haired Pointer.
rabbit drive n. U.S. a driving together of jackrabbits for slaughtering.
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the world > food and drink > hunting > hunting specific animals > [noun] > rabbits
rabbiting1841
rabbit drive1878
1878 Indiana (Pa.) Progress 16 May The Piutes and Shoshones of this vicinity..have inaugurated a grand rabbit drive in Reese River Valley, which will last five days.
1963 R. D. Symons Many Trails xii. 119 A hunt in the manner of the California rabbit drives.
2001 D. Igler Industr. Cowboys iv. 114 Though Indians had hunted rabbits for centuries, William J. Browning takes credit for the first organized rabbit drive.
rabbit fever n. North American (a) a passion for shooting rabbits or for breeding them (now rare or disused); (b) the disease tularaemia.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [noun] > other fevers
fever hectica1398
emitrichie1398
hectic1398
etisie1527
emphysode fever1547
frenzy-fever1613
purple fever1623
prunella1656
marcid fever1666
remittent1693
feveret1712
rheumatic fever1726
milk fever1739
stationary fever1742
febricula1746
milky fever1747
camp-disease1753
camp-fever1753
sun fever1765
recurrent fever1768
rose fever1782
tooth-fever1788
sensitive fever1794
forest-fever1799
white leg1801
hill-fever1804
Walcheren fever1810
Mediterranean fever1816
malignant1825
relapsing fever1828
rose cold1831
date fever1836
rose catarrh1845
Walcheren ague1847
mountain fever1849
mill fever1850
Malta fever1863
bilge-fever1867
Oroya fever1873
hyperpyrexia1875
famine-fever1876
East Coast fever1881
spirillum fevera1883
kala azar1883
black water1884
febricule1887
urine fever1888
undulant fever1896
rabbit fever1898
rat bite fever1910
Rhodesian sleeping sickness1911
sandfly fever1911
tularaemia1921
sodoku1926
brucellosis1930
Rift Valley fever1931
Zika1952
Lassa fever1970
Marburg1983
1898 Trenton (New Jersey) Evening Times 10 Nov. 5/2 The ‘rabbit fever’, or an overwhelming desire to go gunning on the first day of the season, got the better of Isaiah Griffith.
1919 Olean (N.Y.) Evening Times 26 July 10/1 Most live American boys have had the rabbit fever... A pair of rabbits can be purchased for fifty cents from a more mature and disillusionized kid.
1924 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press-Telegram 5 Feb. 3/5 ‘Rabbit fever’ or tularemia, a newly discovered disease, recently has caused the death of two persons, according to Dr. Edward Francis, surgeon in the United States public health service.
1973 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 29 July 2/2 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’.
2001 N.Y. Times 1 May d7/2 Local doctors had detected a small number of cases of rabbit fever pneumonia over recent years but had not reported them to the health department.
rabbit food n. (also rabbit's food) †(a) English regional cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris (obsolete); (b) food commonly eaten by rabbits; (slang) lettuce, green salad, or the like; also in extended use.
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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > leaf vegetables > [noun] > lettuce > types of lettuce
cabbage lettuce?1537
minion1693
passion-lettuce1704
cos lettuce1706
lettuce cabbage1731
rabbit food1772
romaine1865
grass1867
iceberg lettuce1893
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > leaf vegetables > lettuce > types of
cabbage lettuce?1537
Roman lettuce1577
minion1693
passion-lettuce1704
cos lettuce1706
shell-lettuce1707
lettuce cabbage1731
Silesia1731
rabbit food1772
Tom Thumb1847
romaine1865
oak leaf1892
iceberg lettuce1893
mignonette1923
lollo biondo1987
lollo rosso1987
1772 A. Young Polit. Ess. conc. Present State Brit. Empire v. 119 Those very tracts of country which formerly yielded nothing but sheep and rabbit food, are now covered with..gallant crops of corn.
1869 Notes & Queries 3 341 In Sussex Anthriscus sylvestris is coney-parsley; and here, as in many other places, it is known as ‘rabbits' food’.
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 58/1 Rabbit Food..Pigeon Food..Foal Food.
1991 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 11 Aug. 6/2 Rabbit food is the only diet for many in the bikini capital wanting to lose weight.
2001 W. Deverell Laughing Falcon viii. i. 216 Ecstasy, that's just rabbit food for Yuppies scared to get high. Same with Dex and ludes.
2004 H. Walsh Brass i. 22 All you've ordered is a plate of rabbit food and enough whisky to sedate a gang of paraffins.
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1686 R. Blome Gentlemans Recreation iv. ix. 139 Set your Nets, which must be made of course Thread, such as Rabet Hayes, and of a Tand-colour.
1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Woodcock Your Net must be like your Rabbet-Hays.
rabbit hutch n. a hutch for a rabbit to inhabit; (in extended use) a small, confined, or cramped space or dwelling.
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1732 Gentleman's Mag. Feb. 595/1 Her fine Summer-House is made a Rabbit-Hutch.
1839 W. Chambers Tour Belgium 77/1 A little garden..containing a rabbit hutch.
1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai ix. 134 Hurstbridge station was a low gravel platform with a small rabbit hutch of a booking office.
2006 Essex Chron. (Nexis) 20 July 4 The cyclist..went through a garden and crashed into a rabbit hutch.
rabbit paw n. = rabbit's foot n. 1.
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1890 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Gaz. 2 Oct. 2/5 I notice some little bunches of charms..among them tiny rabbit paws in chased gold.
2006 Guardian (Nexis) 3 Feb. 25 She had forgotten her lucky rabbit paw.
rabbit run n. (a) a regular track or path made by a rabbit; (b) an (outdoor) enclosure for a rabbit.
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1846 R. H. Horne Ballad Romances 238 A wood full of rabbit-runs, spaces, and turns.
1895 K. Grahame Golden Age 61 I sped out of the garden..wriggled through the rabbit-run, and threaded my doubtful way homewards.
1979 M. McCarthy Cannibals & Missionaries viii. 202 Outside the rear door were a chicken coop and a rabbit run.
1980 Current Anthropol. 21 149/1 Throwing a net over a flock of birds..and setting a snare set in a rabbit run can produce edible protein in great quantity.
rabbit season n. North American the time of year when rabbit-hunting is permitted.
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1877 Bucks County (Pa.) Gaz. 11 Oct. 3/3 Rabbit season opens on Monday.
1974 M. Montgomery Fugitive xlii. 368 I'll get to it. Right after rabbit season is over.
2006 State Jrnl.-Reg. (Springfield, Illinois) (Nexis) 30 Dec. 9 Rabbit season closes Jan. 22 in the South Zone.
rabbit skin n. the skin or pelt of a rabbit.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > skin or hide > [noun] > skins of other animals
bear-hide?c1225
russwale1336
roan skin1446
rabbit skin1760
zebra skin1774
kangaroo-skin1777
rack1805
alligator1877
ocelot1903
crocodile1907
1760 ‘Publicola’ Bird Fancier's Necessary Compan. 33 A Squirrel-House, lined with Rabbit-Skin, or something warm.
1875 R. Isham tr. T. Isham Jrnl. 25 The cook went to Northampton to sell the rabbit skins.
2003 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) May 189/3 A traditional method of coating stretched linen canvases with a glue literally derived from rabbit skins.
rabbit skin glue n. a strong adhesive made from rabbit collagen, traditionally used in the priming agents gesso and size.
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1887 Denton (Maryland) Jrnl. 30 Apr. This fabric is serrated on both sides, and immersed in a preparation consisting of a decoction of linseed, rabbit skin glue, linseed oil and coloring matter.
1979 C. Hayes Compl. Guide Painting & Drawing Techniques iii. 44 The purest size is made with leather waste glue—also known as rabbit skin glue, parchment glue and Cologne glue.
2005 Santa Fe New Mexican (Nexis) 29 July 76 Goler applies layers of gesso he makes out of rabbit-skin glue and marble dust.
rabbit-spout n. English regional. a rabbit burrow.
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1880 W. de Broke Diary 4 Dec. in C. Mordaunt & R. W. Verney Ann. Warwickshire Hunt (1896) II. 54 The fox was killed in a small rabbit spout.
1886 Field 27 Feb. 266/3 Here they..run him into a rabbit-spout in the gorse.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Oryctolagus (rabbit) > young
rabbita1398
rabbit-suckera1475
rabbit-starter1651
squab1838
coney1876
1651 A. Weldon Court & Char. King James 135 Little children did runne up and downe the Kings Lodgings, like little Rabbit-starters about their boroughs.
rabbit stick n. now chiefly historical a simple missile weapon used by various North American Indian peoples for hunting rabbits and other small game, consisting of a heavy curved or bent stick; = throwing-stick n. 2.The sense in quot. 1788 is unclear; perhaps a heavy stick used for hitting rabbits.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > [noun] > boomerang
rabbit stick1788
boomerang1827
Collery-stick1830
throw-stick1837
kylie1839
comeback1864
trombash1867
throwing-stick1901
1788 St. James's Chron. 18–20 Dec. The Servant..desired his Master to give him a Rabbit Stick out of the Cart.
1882 Cent. Mag. Dec. 200/2 More of the like, including quivers and bows, war-clubs, and boomerangs or ‘rabbit-sticks’.
1918 Amer. Anthropologist New Ser. 20 385 In Zuñi war god shrines..I noticed no knobbed sticks or rabbit sticks.
1958 H. C. James Red Man White Man xi. 70 Allen produced a boomerang-like stick... ‘Have you forgotten a rabbit stick? Look!’ He threw it with dexterity and killed a rabbit that Jim had not even seen.
2005 News Native Calif. 19 32 Sitting next to the cradle in that same museum case might very well be a throwing stick, or rabbit stick.
rabbit-stock n. (a) rabbits bred for use or profit; (b) Cookery a stock (stock n.1 57a) made with rabbit.
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1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1204 Rabbit-stock demands, on the whole, but little regard.
1889 J. Whitehead Steward's Handbk. 447/1 Rabbit stock with ham and vegetables thickened with roux and yolks.
1934 Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald 18 Aug. 40/1 A certain company wants me to buy their rabbit stock and to raise rabbits.
1985 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 18 Apr. viii. 1/5 Diners moved on to rabbit in a sauce composed of rabbit stock, wine, cream and Creole mustard.
2006 Indo-Asian News Service (Nexis) 21 Sept. The Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Kullu, played a major role in the propagation and distribution of rabbit stock to farmers.
rabbit test n. Medicine any of various diagnostic tests performed using rabbits; spec. (a) a test for pregnancy in women (now rare or historical); (b) a test for irritant properties of products applied to the skin or eye.
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the world > health and disease > healing > diagnosis or prognosis > tests > [noun] > pregnancy test
rabbit test1914
pregnancy test1915
pregnancy testing1938
1914 Lancet 11 Apr. 1042/1 A complete series of cultures of the various types of bacilli, a series of rabbits' lungs showing the ‘rabbit test’ of virulence, and also specimens of lesions in larger animals.
1937 S. B. Anklesaria (title) The rabbit test for the detection of chorionic tissue in the body and the determination of its proliferative activity.
1972 Clin. Res. 20 213/1 The Draize rabbit test accurately predicted the severe human skin irritants and the non-irritants.
1977 E. 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.
2005 Vaccine 23 3709/1 The rabbit test [for pyrogens] has ethical and practical drawbacks.
rabbit tobacco n. U.S. (now chiefly historical) a tobacco substitute made from the dried leaves and flowers of sweet everlasting, Gnaphalium obtusifolium, a fragrant cudweed of the United States; (also) the plant itself.
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the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > tobacco > [noun] > substitutes for tobacco
tobacco-docks1599
poke1634
saccacommis1703
kinnikinnick1792
sumac1813
rabbit tobacco1880
pipeweed1896
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > yielding drug or narcotic > [noun] > tobacco-plant > tobacco substitute plants
kinnikinnick1824
rabbit tobacco1880
1880 J. C. Harris Uncle Remus: Songs & Sayings 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.’
1937 Amer. Speech 12 235/1 On all the poor land in the middle and far West there is a weed known as..rabbit tobacco.
1999 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 23 Jan. a4/2 At heart I'm still a half-naked little hillbilly, chewing rabbit tobacco and scratching chigger bites.
rabbit tooth n. (usually in plural) = buck-tooth n.
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the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > types or spec. teeth > [noun] > projecting
tushc725
tuska900
tusclec1000
butter tootha1566
gag-tooth1585
gang-tooth1603
gubber-tush1621
gobber tooth1628
buck-tooth1753
tombstone1809
rabbit tooth1863
1863 Hedderwick's Misc. 15 Aug. 275/1 Lady Primrose was a portly dame, with rabbit teeth, white silvery hair, and rather a flushed appearance.
1914 J. F. Gallatin Great Peace Maker: Diary J. Gallatin iv. 221 Why is it so many English women have those rabbit teeth? it quite spoils their beauty.
1980 E. Leather Duveen Let. viii. 98 He was tall, thin, with large rabbit teeth.
rabbit warren n. (originally) a piece of land set aside for rabbit-breeding; (later) a network of interconnected rabbit burrows; (in extended use) a building or area characterized as a labyrinthine mass of passages or dwellings.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > gamekeeping > [noun] > place where rabbits/hares kept
clapperc1400
warrena1425
hare-warren1647
rabbit warren1766
rabbitry1838
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Oryctolagus (rabbit) > burrow or warren
clapperc1400
cunnigar1424
warrena1425
coneygarth1429
coney-close?1472
coney hole?c1475
berry1486
coney holda1500
coney-clapper1530
coney yard1532
coneyry1570
coney burrow1575
coney gratec1580
coney-gat1591
coney green1599
coney warren1616
coney ground1617
rabbit hole1667
stop1669
rabbit burrow1723
stock1736
rabbit warren1766
stab1838
warrener1864
1766 T. Smollett Trav. France & Italy I. 32 Open downs, where there is a rabbit warren.
1804 M. Edgeworth Will i, in Pop. Tales I. 140 There's that fine rabbit-warren near Clover-hill.
1892 E. Reeves Homeward Bound 295 It is almost as thickly populated as a rabbit warren.
2004 P. Biskind Down & Dirty Pictures ii. 67 The office was..a rabbit warren of tiny spaces, with chilly fluorescent lights.
Derivatives
ˈrabbit-like adj.
ΚΠ
1687 tr. E. Campion Reasons Challenge 3 Who is there even ordinarily Learned would fear such Rabbet-like Enemies?
1799 Lett. & Papers Agric. (Bath & West of Eng. Soc.) IX. xxi. 264 Our flocks..are much more susceptible of injury from abstinence than were the hardy rabbit-like animals of many of our ancestors.
1849 Sketches Nat. Hist.: Mammalia IV. 6 Body short, thick, and rabbit-like.
1907 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 12 616 In South Africa the whites stand aghast at the rabbit-like increase of the blacks.
2004 G. Currie Arts & Minds xi. 223 Moe draws something that looks very rabbit-like.
ˈrabbit-wise adv. in the manner of a rabbit, like a rabbit; (also) by way of rabbits.
ΚΠ
1844 Bentley's Mag. Jan. 53 A starveling cat roasted rabbitwise.
1911 ‘K. Mansfield’ In German Pension 20 He was eating salad—taking a whole lettuce leaf on his fork and absorbing it slowly, rabbit-wise—a fascinating process to watch.
2005 Union Leader (New Hampsh.) (Nexis) 23 Jan. c14 Snowshoe hares are pretty much all that's left, rabbit-wise, in my neck of the woods.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
† rabbitn.2
Obsolete.
A wooden drinking vessel.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > containers for drink > drinking vessel > [noun] > wooden
rabbit1685
coga1689
sapling-cup1851
quassia cup1856
bidon1867
1685 G. Meriton Praise of York-shire Ale 1 Stronge Beer in Rabits and cheating penny Cans.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Rabbits, Wooden Kanns to Drink out of, once used on the Roads, now almost laid by.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
† rabbitn.3
Obsolete. rare.
= rab n.2
ΚΠ
1850 J. Ogilvie Imperial Dict. Rabbit, a wooden implement used in mixing mortar. [Also in later dictionaries.]
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
rabbitv.1
/ˈrabɪt/, U.S. /ˈræbət/ Now archaic and English regional.
transitive. Used as a mild expletive: = drat int.Frequently in od rabbit it (see od rabbit it at od n.1 and int. Phrases).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [interjection] > oaths other than religious or obscene > imprecations
woeOE
dahetc1290
confoundc1330
foul (also shame) fall ——c1330
sorrow on——c1330
in the wanianda1352
wildfirea1375
evil theedomc1386
a pestilence on (also upon)c1390
woe betide you (also him, her, etc.)c1390
maldathaita1400
murrainc1400
out ona1415
in the wild waning worldc1485
vengeance?a1500
in a wanion1549
with a wanion1549
woe worth1553
a plague on——a1566
with a wanion to?c1570
with a wanyand1570
bot1584
maugre1590
poxa1592
death1593
rot1594
rot on1595
cancro1597
pax1604
pize on (also upon)1605
vild1605
peascod1606
cargo1607
confusion1608
perditiona1616
(a) pest upon1632
deuce1651
stap my vitals1697
strike me blind, dumb, lucky (if, but—)1697
stop my vitals1699
split me (or my windpipe)1700
rabbit1701
consume1756
capot me!1760
nick me!1760
weary set1788
rats1816
bad cess to1859
curse1885
hanged1887
buggeration1964
1701 T. D'Urfey Bath v. i. 40 Od rabbit it, I think I look as like a Captain of Militia, as ever trembled at firing a Musquet.
1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews II. iii. vii. 130 ‘Rabbit the Fellow,’ cries he. View more context for this quotation
1768 O. Goldsmith Good Natur'd Man iii. 33 Rabbit me, but little Flanigan will look well in any thing.
1841 J. Roby Pop. Trad. Eng. III. 76 Rabbit thee, Will, but the luggage will break thy back.
1892 ‘Q’ I saw Three Ships 71 But rabbet me if I can guess what they were.
1961 R. Hodgson Coll. Poems 161 Od rabbit it, He loved the vermin!
1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 238/1 An' rabbit yah anall, yer stupid owd wommacks yah!
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
rabbitv.2
/ˈrabɪt/, U.S. /ˈræbət/ 1. intransitive. To hunt for or catch rabbits. Usually in present participle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > hunting specific animals > hunt specific animal [verb (intransitive)] > hunt rabbits
rabbit1830
1830 Times 16 Mar. 3/4 Mr. Dennings, keeper of Ulverscroft, was rabbiting in Copt-oak-wood.
1873 G. W. Kitchin Hist. France I. iii. viii. 341 This man caught three Flemish students rabbiting in his warren.
1919 J. Masefield Reynard the Fox ii. 115 He had rabbitted there long months before.
2004 Sporting Gun Mar. 33/3 Often he'll be out rabbiting or taking pheasants with a goshawk.
2. intransitive. colloquial. To move quickly or in the manner of a rabbit; to run away.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > move swiftly [verb (intransitive)]
lakeOE
flyOE
runOE
scour13..
jace1393
hie1398
spina1400
fleetc1400
glentc1400
stripc1400
suea1450
carryc1450
speed1488
scud1532
streek1598
winga1616
to clip it1616
hackney1617
swifta1618
whirryc1630
dust1673
whew1684
race1702
stroke1735
cut1797
spank1807
skid1815
speela1818
crack1824
skimmer1824
slap1827
clip1832
skeet1838
marvel1841
lick1850
travel1850
rush1852
zip1852
sail1876
rabbit1887
move1906
high-tail1908
to ball the jack1914
buzz1914
shift1922
giddap1938
burn1942
hoosh1943
bomb1966
shred1977
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > go away [verb (intransitive)] > run away or flee
fleec825
afleeeOE
atrina1000
atfleec1000
to run awayOE
to turn to or into flighta1225
to turn the ridgec1225
atrenc1275
atshakec1275
to give backa1300
flemec1300
startc1330
to take (on oneself) the flighta1500
to take the back upon oneselfa1500
fly1523
to take (also betake) (oneself) to one's legs1530
to flee one's way1535
to take to one's heels1548
flought?1567
fuge1573
to turn taila1586
to run off1628
to take flighta1639
refugea1641
to run for it1642
to take leg1740
to give (also take) leg-bail1751
bail1775
sherry1788
to pull foot1792
fugitate1830
to tail off (out)1830
to take to flight1840
to break (strike, etc.) for (the) tall timber1845
guy1879
to give leg (or legs)1883
rabbit1887
to do a guy1889
high-tail1908
to have it on one's toes1958
1887 Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Assoc. 19 77 Miss —— du rabbut 'bout en awl wethurz.
1937 D. M. Jones In Parenthesis iv. 71 You can't find the lane—the one way—you rabbit to and fro.
1972 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight (1973) ii. 33 I noticed another junkie watching me. He was trying to decide whether to rabbit or freeze.
2000 N. Barr Deep South (2001) x. 178 A rushing in the bushes to her left let her know the Doolittle boys had rabbited. They'd be picked up easily enough. She had the car, the driver's license.
ΚΠ
1892 Sunday Mag. Sept. 602 The common people..rabbit together in miserable warrens.
4. intransitive. slang. To copulate. Also transitive: to copulate with (a woman).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > engage in sexual activity [verb (intransitive)] > have sexual intercourse
playOE
to do (also work) one's kindc1225
bedc1315
couple1362
gendera1382
to go togetherc1390
to come togethera1398
meddlea1398
felterc1400
companya1425
swivec1440
japea1450
mellc1450
to have to do with (also mid, of, on)1474
engender1483
fuck?a1513
conversec1540
jostlec1540
confederate1557
coeate1576
jumble1582
mate1589
do1594
conjoin1597
grind1598
consortc1600
pair1603
to dance (a dance) between a pair of sheets1608
commix1610
cock1611
nibble1611
wap1611
bolstera1616
incorporate1622
truck1622
subagitate1623
occupya1626
minglec1630
copulate1632
fere1632
rut1637
joust1639
fanfreluche1653
carnalize1703
screw1725
pump1730
correspond1756
shag1770
hump1785
conjugate1790
diddle1879
to get some1889
fuckeec1890
jig-a-jig1896
perform1902
rabbit1919
jazz1920
sex1921
root1922
yentz1923
to make love1927
rock1931
mollock1932
to make (beautiful) music (together)1936
sleep1936
bang1937
lumber1938
to hop into bed (with)1951
to make out1951
ball1955
score1960
trick1965
to have it away1966
to roll in the hay1966
to get down1967
poontang1968
pork1968
shtup1969
shack1976
bonk1984
boink1985
1919 J. Masefield Reynard the Fox 16 I'll learn 'ee rabbit in my shed.
1929 R. Graves Good-bye to all That 327 He had heard that the rabbit had been rabbiting with his wife. This rabbiting the rabbit denied.
1970 R. Allen Skinhead xii. 100 The way she rabbits around with that bloody Catholic Mike Kallinan she should be pregnant!
a1990 G. Ewart Coll. Poems (1991) 38 Each one believes girls rammed, badgered or rabbited, are damned.
5. transitive. Australian Nautical slang. To borrow or steal. Cf. rabbit n.1 4b. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > steal [verb (transitive)]
pick?c1300
takec1300
fetch1377
bribec1405
usurpc1412
rapc1415
to rap and rendc1415
embezzle1495
lifta1529
pilfer1532
suffurate1542
convey?1545
mill1567
prig1567
strike1567
lag1573
shave1585
knave1601
twitch1607
cly1610
asport1621
pinch1632
snapa1639
nap1665
panyar1681
to carry off1684
to pick up1687
thievea1695
to gipsy away1696
bone1699
make1699
win1699
magg1762
snatch1766
to make off with1768
snavel1795
feck1809
shake1811
nail1819
geach1821
pull1821
to run off1821
smug1825
nick1826
abduct1831
swag1846
nobble1855
reef1859
snig1862
find1865
to pull off1865
cop1879
jump1879
slock1888
swipe1889
snag1895
rip1904
snitch1904
pole1906
glom1907
boost1912
hot-stuff1914
score1914
clifty1918
to knock off1919
snoop1924
heist1930
hoist1931
rabbit1943
to rip off1967
to have off1974
the mind > possession > taking > borrowing > borrow [verb (transitive)]
apprompt1548
mutuate1548
prest1548
to take out1753
promote1918
nip1919
bot1921
rabbit1943
borrow-
1943 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 63 Rabbit, to, to borrow, scrounge. (R.A.N. slang.)
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxi. 198 Why were Australian Navy men better at ‘rabbiting’ little valuable articles than Americans?
6. intransitive. colloquial. To talk volubly, to chatter; to speak or write at length, without saying anything important. Also with away, on.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > loquacity or talkativeness > be talkative [verb (intransitive)] > talk excessively or chatter
chavel?c1225
babblea1250
chattera1250
clacka1250
janglea1300
ganglec1300
clapc1315
mumblec1350
blabberc1375
carp1377
tatterc1380
garre1382
rattlec1400
clatter1401
chimec1405
gabc1405
pattera1450
smattera1450
languetc1450
pratec1460
chat1483
jabber1499
clittera1529
cackle1530
prattle1532
blatter1533
blab1535
to run on pattens1546
tattle1547
prittle-prattlea1555
trattlea1555
tittle-tattle1556
quiddlea1566
brabble1570
clicket1570
twattle1573
gabble1574
prittle1583
to like to hear oneself speak, talk1597
to word it1612
deblaterate1623
tongue1624
twitter1630
snatter1647
oversay1656
whiffle1706
to gallop away1711
splutter1728
gob1770
gibble-gabble1775
palaver1781
to talk (etc.) nineteen to the dozen1785
gammon1789
witter1808
yabble1808
yaff1808
mag1810
chelp1820
tongue-pad1825
yatter1825
potter1826
chipper1829
jaw-jaw1831
buzz1832
to shoot off one's mouth1864
yawp1872
blate1878
chin1884
yap1888
spiel1894
to talk (also lie, swear, etc.) a blue streak1895
to run off at the mouth1908
chattermag1909
clatfart1913
to talk a streak1915
to run one's mouth1916
natter1942
ear-bash1944
rabbit1950
yack1950
yacker1961
to eat parrot head (also bottom)1965
yacket1969
to twat on1996
1950 P. Tempest Lag's Lexicon 173 One who ‘rabbits’ all the time is one who never stops talking.
1959 Encounter Mar. 63/1 The next thing I knew, I was rabbiting away to a geezer.
1963 ‘A. Garve’ Sea Monks iii. 108 Then stop rabbitin' an' get that wall cleaned.
1977 Guardian Weekly 9 Oct. 20/3 A girl reporter from Rolling Stone rabbits on idiotically about the Maharishi.
1998 Sydney Morning Herald 1 Aug. 10/7 Umberto Eco spent the first 100 closely typed pages of The Name of the Rose rabbiting on about Benedictine history, before getting to the murder that kickstarted the plot.
2005 M. Lewycka Short Hist. Tractors in Ukrainian xiii. 139 He is still rabbiting on about the differences between Russian and Ukrainian while my mind is fixed on Valentina.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1a1398
n.21685
n.31850
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