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rabbit.

A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares)

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹæbɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹabɪt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹæbət//ˈɹæbɪt/
  1. A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares)

    countable · uncountable
    The pioneers survived by eating the small game they could get: rabbits, squirrels and occasionally a raccoon.
  2. The meat from this animal.

    uncountable
    She was cooking rabbit stew for dinner.
  3. The fur of a rabbit typically used to imitate another animal's fur.

    uncountable
  4. 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.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A very poor batsman, selected as a bowler or wicket-keeper.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A batsman who is frequently dismissed by the same bowler (said to be that player's rabbit).

    countable · uncountable
    Glenn McGrath dismissed Michael Atherton a record 19 times; hence Atherton is McGrath's rabbit.
  7. A large element at the beginning of a list of items to be bubble sorted, and thus tending to be quickly swapped into its correct position. Compare turtle.

    countable · uncountable
  8. Rarebit; Welsh rabbit or a similar dish: melted cheese served atop toast.

    countable · uncountable
  9. A pneumatically-controlled tool used to insert small samples of material inside the core of a nuclear reactor.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A vibrator with a shaft and a clitoral stimulator usually shaped like a rabbit's ears.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English rabet, rabette, from Anglo-Latin rabettus, from dialectal Old French rabotte, probably a diminutive of Middle Dutch or West Flemish robbe (“rabbit, seal”), of uncertain origin; possibly some imitative verb, maybe robben, rubben (“to rub”) is used here to allude to a characteristic of the animal. See rub. Related forms include Middle French rabouillet (“baby rabbit”) and in French rabot (“plane”)), coming via Walloon Old French (reflected nowadays as Walloon robète (“rabbit”)), from Middle Dutch robbe ("rabbit; seal"; whence Modern Dutch rob (“rabbit", also "seal”)); also Middle Low German robbe, rubbe (“rabbit”), and the later German Low German Rubbe, Robb (“seal”), West Frisian robbe (“seal”), Saterland Frisian Rubbe (“seal”), North Frisian rob (“seal”), borrowed into German Robbe (“seal”). Meant "young rabbit" until the 19th c., when it came to replace the original general term cony, owing to the latter's resemblance to and use as a euphemism for cunny, "vulva" (compare ass and donkey). Note that there is no inherited Germanic word for rabbits, since hares are the only leporids native to Britain (as with all of Europe outside the Iberian Peninsula and southwest France); rabbits were introduced from France in the late Middle Ages, likely after the Norman Invasion. (Fittingly, hare is indeed inherited from Proto-Germanic.)

verb/ˈɹæbɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹabɪt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹæbət//ˈɹæbɪt/
  1. To hunt rabbits.

    intransitive
  2. To flee.

    US · intransitive
    The informant seemed skittish, as if he was about to rabbit.
    When the three friends heard someone behind them yell, "police, freeze!" they each rabbited in a different direction.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English rabet, rabette, from Anglo-Latin rabettus, from dialectal Old French rabotte, probably a diminutive of Middle Dutch or West Flemish robbe (“rabbit, seal”), of uncertain origin; possibly some imitative verb, maybe robben, rubben (“to rub”) is used here to allude to a characteristic of the animal. See rub. Related forms include Middle French rabouillet (“baby rabbit”) and in French rabot (“plane”)), coming via Walloon Old French (reflected nowadays as Walloon robète (“rabbit”)), from Middle Dutch robbe ("rabbit; seal"; whence Modern Dutch rob (“rabbit", also "seal”)); also Middle Low German robbe, rubbe (“rabbit”), and the later German Low German Rubbe, Robb (“seal”), West Frisian robbe (“seal”), Saterland Frisian Rubbe (“seal”), North Frisian rob (“seal”), borrowed into German Robbe (“seal”). Meant "young rabbit" until the 19th c., when it came to replace the original general term cony, owing to the latter's resemblance to and use as a euphemism for cunny, "vulva" (compare ass and donkey). Note that there is no inherited Germanic word for rabbits, since hares are the only leporids native to Britain (as with all of Europe outside the Iberian Peninsula and southwest France); rabbits were introduced from France in the late Middle Ages, likely after the Norman Invasion. (Fittingly, hare is indeed inherited from Proto-Germanic.)

verb/ˈɹæbɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹabɪt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹæbət//ˈɹæbɪt/
  1. To talk incessantly and in a childish manner; to babble annoyingly.

    UK · intransitive
    Stop your infernal rabbiting! Use proper words or nobody will listen to you!
Where this word comes from

From Cockney rhyming slang rabbit and pork, to talk.

verb/ˈɹæbɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹabɪt/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹæbət//ˈɹæbɪt/
  1. Confound; damn; drat.

Where this word comes from

Perhaps a corruption of rabate.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.