Meaning & use
gym bunny
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Meaning
nouncountableinformaldisapproving
Someone who spends a lot of time exercising in a gym, often in a showy way and mainly to look good.
Grammar: Countable and informal; it usually carries a mildly critical tone, so it is safer between friends than in formal writing.
Patterns
- a gym bunny
- be a gym bunny
- become a gym bunny
He goes to the gym twice a day and posts photos of every workout — his friends call him a gym bunny.
She laughs at being called a gym bunny, but she really does spend three hours there most evenings.
The article poked fun at gym bunnies who care more about their outfits than their training.
Word forms
| plural | gym bunnies |
|---|
Common combinations
- a real gym bunny
- After a year of daily classes, she has turned into a real gym bunny.
- call someone a gym bunny
- His teammates call him a gym bunny because he never misses a session.
- a typical gym bunny
- With the matching gear and the selfies, he looks like a typical gym bunny.
- become a gym bunny
- Since she started training for the marathon, she has become a gym bunny.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fitness fanatic
- Fitness fanatic stresses how serious and dedicated the person is, while gym bunny stresses time spent in the gym and often sounds a little mocking.
- workout enthusiast
- This is a neutral, polite way to describe the same habit; gym bunny is informal and can sound critical.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: gym bunny or gym rat? gym bunny or bunny?
gym bunny vs gym rat
Gym rat is mainly American and can sound almost admiring, suggesting long hours of serious training; gym bunny is more common in British English and often suggests showing off.
gym bunny vs bunny
On its own bunny means a rabbit or is a child's word for one; only in compounds like gym bunny does it describe a person.
Practice
Which sentence uses "gym bunny" most naturally?
Choose one answer.
A gym bunny is an informal, slightly critical name for a person who spends a lot of time exercising in a gym, as in option B. Option A treats bunny as an animal, option C treats it as an object, and option D confuses it with a worker or technician.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “gym bunny”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.