rabbit

Meaning

Noun

1. A mammal of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail.
2. The meat from this animal.
3. The fur of a rabbit typically used to imitate another animal's fur.
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.
5. A very poor batsman; selected as a bowler or wicket-keeper.
6. 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.
7. Rarebit; Welsh rabbit or a similar dish: melted cheese served atop toast.
8. A pneumatically-controlled tool used to insert small samples of material inside the core of a nuclear reactor.

Verb

1. To hunt rabbits.
2. To flee.

Verb

To talk incessantly and in a childish manner; to babble annoyingly.

Verb

Confound; damn; drat.

Synonyms

hare

bunny

cony

coney

shuttle

cottontail rabbit

lapin

pawnshop

possum

wild rabbit

Welsh rabbit

snowshoe rabbit

domestic rabbit

European rabbit

rabbity

leporide

hare the moon

single-state recycle

old world rabbit

buck

European wild rabbit

buck-rabbit

cottontail

food

🍽️

goat

🐐

guinea pig

jackrabbit

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɹæbɪt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: rabet

Cognate with Middle French: rabouillet

Cognate with French: rabot

Cognate with Walloon: -

Cognate with Walloon: robète

Cognate with Dutch: rob

Cognate with Middle Low German: robbe

Cognate with Low German: Rubbe

Cognate with Western Frisian: robbe

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Rubbe

Cognate with Northern Frisian: rob

Cognate with German: Robbe

In summary

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 (“seal", also "rabbit”)); also Middle Low German robbe, rubbe (“rabbit”), and the later Low German Rubbe (“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 coney, owing to the latter's resemblance to and use as a euphemism for cunny, "vulva" (compare ass and donkey).