Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae, such as the commonly domesticated species Oryctolagus cuniculus, native to Europe and widely introduced elsewhere, or the cottontail of the Americas.
  • noun A hare.
  • noun The fur of a rabbit or hare.
  • noun A competitor who is designated to set a fast pace for a teammate during a long-distance race.
  • noun A racehorse that is run at a fast pace early in a race in order to tire the favorite so that another horse can take the lead.
  • noun A mechanical decoy that is propelled around the track in a greyhound race to incite the dogs.
  • intransitive verb To hunt rabbits or hares.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An interjectional imperative, equivalent to confound.
  • noun A rodent mammal, Lepus cuniculus, of the hare family, Leporidæ; a kind of hare notable for burrowing in the ground.
  • noun Hence Any hare; a leporid, or any member of the Leporidæ.
  • To hunt or trap rabbits.
  • noun A wooden implement used in mixing mortar.
  • noun A wooden can used as a drinking-vessel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any of the smaller species of the genus Lepus, especially the common European species (Lepus cuniculus), which is often kept as a pet, and has been introduced into many countries. It is remarkably prolific, and has become a pest in some parts of Australia and New Zealand.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a variety of the domestic rabbit having long, soft fur.
  • noun a hole in the earth made by rabbits for shelter and habitation.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of plectognath fishes, as the bur fish, and puffer. The term is also locally applied to other fishes.
  • noun (Bot.) See Cyclamen.
  • noun a piece of ground appropriated to the breeding and preservation of rabbits.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the pika.
  • noun a dish of which the chief constituents are melted cheese over toasted bread, flavored in various ways, as with ale, beer, milk, or spices. The name is popularly said to be a corruption of Welsh rare bit, but it is probably merely a humorous designation; -- also called Welsh rarebit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mammal of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail.
  • noun The fur of a rabbit typically used to imitate another animal's fur.
  • noun A runner in a distance race whose goal is mainly to set the pace, either to tire a specific rival so that a teammate can win or to help another break a record; a pacesetter.
  • noun cricket A very poor batsman; selected as a bowler or wicket-keeper.
  • verb intransitive To hunt rabbits.
  • verb US, intransitive To flee.
  • verb UK, intransitive To talk incessantly and in a childish manner; to babble annoyingly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various burrowing animals of the family Leporidae having long ears and short tails; some domesticated and raised for pets or food
  • noun the fur of a rabbit
  • verb hunt rabbits
  • noun flesh of any of various rabbits or hares (wild or domesticated) eaten as food

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rabet, young rabbit, probably from Old French, from Middle Dutch robbe, rabbit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English rabet, from Middle French dialect (compare French dialect rabbotte, rabouillet ("baby rabbit")), from Walloon robète, diminutive of Middle Dutch robbe ("rabbit; seal") (compare Dutch rob ("rabbit"), rob ("seal")), from Middle Low German robbe ("seal") (compare dialectal Low German Rubb, Robb, dialectal German Robbe ("seal")), from rubben ("ro rub"). More at rub.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Cockney rhyming slang rabbit and pork, to talk.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Cricket jargon - a player who is not very accomplished at batting.

    December 1, 2007

  • Biofuel.

    October 23, 2009

  • Awww.... :-(

    October 23, 2009

  • How do you catch a unique rabbit? Unique up on it!

    How do you catch a tame rabbit? Tame way, unique up on it!

    January 7, 2010

  • Still one of my favorite jokes!

    January 7, 2010

  • The French will eat almost anything. A young cook decided that the French would enjoy feasting on rabbits and decided to raise rabbits in Paris and sell them to the finer restaurants in the city.

    He searched all over Paris seeking a suitable place to raise his rabbits. None could be found. Finally, an old priest at the cathedral said he could have a small area behind the rectory for his rabbits.

    He successfully raised a number of them, and when he went about Paris selling them, a restaurant owner asked him where he got such fresh rabbits.

    The young man replied, "I raise them myself, near the cathedral. In fact, I have a hutch back of Notre Dame."

    June 6, 2010