Meaning & use
rabbit
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A small furry mammal with long ears and a short tail that lives in burrows and is kept as a pet or eaten as meat.
Grammar: Countable for the animal: two rabbits; uncountable for the meat: we had rabbit for dinner.
Patterns
- a rabbit in the garden
- a pet rabbit
A rabbit hopped across the lawn and disappeared under the hedge.
She keeps two rabbits in a hutch behind the house.
The restaurant serves rabbit stew with mustard.
verbintransitiveBritishinformaldisapproving
To talk for a long time, usually about unimportant things.
Grammar: No object; almost always followed by on: he rabbits on about football.
Patterns
- rabbit on about something
- rabbit on
He rabbited on for an hour about his holiday.
I do not mean to rabbit on, but this is important to me.
They were rabbiting away in the kitchen when I came in.
nouncountableBritishinformalold-fashioned
A person who is a poor player of a sport such as tennis or cricket.
Grammar: Informal and old-fashioned: he is a bit of a rabbit at golf.
I am a rabbit at tennis, so go easy on me.
The new batsman turned out to be a complete rabbit.
Word forms
| plural | rabbits |
|---|---|
| third person singular | rabbits |
| past tense | rabbited |
| past participle | rabbited |
| -ing form | rabbiting |
Common combinations
- wild rabbit
- A wild rabbit sat at the edge of the field.
- pet rabbit
- Their pet rabbit lives in the garden in summer.
- rabbit hole
- The dog stuck its nose down a rabbit hole.
- rabbit hutch
- He built a rabbit hutch out of old pallets.
- rabbit on about
- Stop rabbiting on about the weather.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bunny
- Bunny is a child-friendly or affectionate word for a rabbit, while rabbit is the neutral everyday term.
- hare
- A hare is a different animal, larger with longer legs and ears, that lives above ground rather than in burrows.
- chatter
- Chatter, for the verb sense, suggests quick light talk, whereas rabbit on suggests going on too long.
- ramble
- Ramble suggests wandering off the point, while rabbit on stresses the length and the dull content.
Word family
- rabbity adjective
- like a rabbit, such as in having a timid or nervous look
- rabbitry noun
- a place where rabbits are kept
- bunny noun
- a child's word for a rabbit
Commonly confused: rabbit or hare?
rabbit vs hare
A hare is bigger than a rabbit, has longer ears and legs, and does not live in burrows. Rabbits live in groups underground.
Practice
Which sentence uses the verb sense of rabbit correctly?
Choose one answer.
Rabbit on means to talk at length and takes no object. The other sentences treat rabbit as a different kind of verb, which it is not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rabbit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.