Synonyms for rabbit


Grammar : Noun
Spell : rab-it
Phonetic Transcription : ˈræb ɪt

Top 10 synonyms for rabbit Other synonyms for the word rabbit

Définition of rabbit

Origin :
  • late 14c., "young of the coney," from French dialect (cf. Walloon robète), diminutive of Flemish or Middle Dutch robbe "rabbit," of unknown origin. "A Germanic noun with a French suffix" [Liberman]. The adult was a coney (q.v.) until 18c.
  • Zoologically speaking, there are no native rabbits in the United States; they are all hares. But the early colonists, for some unknown reason, dropped the word hare out of their vocabulary, and it is rarely heard in American speech to this day. When it appears it is almost always applied to the so-called Belgian hare, which, curiously enough, is not a hare at all, but a true rabbit. [Mencken, "The American Language"]
  • Rabbit punch "chop on the back of the neck" so called from resemblance to a gamekeeper's method of dispatching an injured rabbit. Pulling rabbits from a hat as a conjurer's trick recorded by 1843. Rabbit's foot "good luck charm" first attested 1879, in U.S. Southern black culture. Earlier references are to its use as a tool to apply cosmetic powders.
  • [N]ear one of them was the dressing-room of the principal danseuse of the establishment, who was at the time of the rising of the curtain consulting a mirror in regard to the effect produced by the application of a rouge-laden rabbit's foot to her cheeks, and whose toilet we must remark, passim, was not entirely completed. ["New York Musical Review and Gazette," Nov. 29, 1856]
  • Rabbit ears "dipole television antenna" is from 1950. Grose's 1788 "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" has "RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife."
  • noun animal
Example sentences :
  • I looked and saw a huge gray squirrel with a tail like a rabbit.
  • Extract from : « The Underdog » by F. Hopkinson Smith
  • A Welsh rabbit, in the speech of the humorless, who point out that it is not a rabbit.
  • Extract from : « The Devil's Dictionary » by Ambrose Bierce
  • Put the pieces of rabbit on a hot dish, and pour the gravy over them.
  • Extract from : « Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches » by Eliza Leslie
  • He clavers them over with flattery as the snake clavers the rabbit.
  • Extract from : « American Notes » by Rudyard Kipling
  • Then she became aware that she no longer had the rabbit warren to herself.
  • Extract from : « The Incomplete Amorist » by E. Nesbit
  • "Some of our boys attacked by a rabbit," I suggested, but still hearkened.
  • Extract from : « The Cavalier » by George Washington Cable
  • His teeth closed upon the rabbit, and he bore it back to earth with him.
  • Extract from : « White Fang » by Jack London
  • I will tell my rabbit not to make any noise—and to be as white as he can.
  • Extract from : « Salted With Fire » by George MacDonald
  • Now I think of it, my little sister has one, but she calls it a rabbit, I believe.
  • Extract from : « The First Violin » by Jessie Fothergill
  • That explains why they cover their window up when they have a rabbit to eat.
  • Extract from : « L'Assommoir » by Emile Zola

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019