Talk:rabbit

rabbit
Sense: colloquial Someone new to something. --Connel MacKenzie 04:00, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * RFVfailed. &mdash; Beobach972 00:56, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Nadsat
'Rabbit' is Nadsat for 'work', should it be mentioned here? 79.178.166.40 17:53, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I would say No — not until Nadsat enters standard English. It is, after all, basically Russian. Paul Magnussen 18:02, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Cockney Rhyming Slang
'Rabbit and pork' is the etymology given in the COD, but it seems very wrong to me as a Londoner: rhyming-slang couples are well known pairs, and who associates rabbit with pork? My understanding has always been that it comes from rabbit's paw = jaw. Disagreement welcome, I might learn something.Paul Magnussen 17:59, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
 * 1941 They Die with their Boots Clean, apparently. Rich Farmbrough, 16:13, 2 May 2023 (UTC).

I'm not sure about this "and in a childish manner". I've always used the term to just mean without stopping, and heard it used in the same way. Rich Farmbrough, 20:15, 2 May 2023 (UTC).

Dutch translation "rob"
Can someone please verify if "rob" is a correct translation for rabbit? I sought for it on Dutch internet dictionaries and could only find it in an (etymological dictionary, which states that the use of it is dated. I speak Dutch, and I only use "rob" as a synonym for "zeehond" which means "seal", so when I read the translation I was confused

Akionaio+060 (talk) 17:22, 20 June 2017 (UTC)

skin a rabbit!
Humorous parental exclamation when while pulling off a young child's shirt before putting them to bed. I saw this in Private Eye a few days ago. I'd completely forgotten it, not having heard it since I was very small. Equinox ◑ 18:50, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Possible missing sense: a timid or bad gambler
Found in Green's Newspeak (1984). Hard to cite due to many other meanings in texts about gambling, e.g. lucky rabbit's foot. Equinox ◑ 19:10, 12 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Timid person in general: He's just a rabbit, I don't know if he has ever actually found himself in an incense-scented boudoir alone with a girl with sensual lips and dark smouldering eyes, but if he did, I'll bet he would take a chair as far away from her as possible and ask her if she had read any good books lately. P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Greasy Bird [found in The World Of Jeeves first pub. 1967, but story may have been pub earlier]. Rich Farmbrough, 20:22, 2 May 2023 (UTC).


 * Jeeves and the Greasy Bird - Playboy, December 1965. Rich Farmbrough, 20:26, 2 May 2023 (UTC).

Possible missing sense: a bad player in sports
Found in Green's Newspeak (1984). A bad golfer, or (general UK sports usage) a weak or cowardly player who fails to help the team. (We only have a cricket sense.) Equinox ◑ 19:13, 12 January 2021 (UTC)