rab·bit

(răb′ĭt)

n. pl. rab·bits or rabbit

1. Any of various long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae, such as the commonly domesticated species Oryctolagus cuniculus, native to Europe and widely introduced elsewhere, or the cottontail of the Americas.

2. A hare.

3. The flesh of a rabbit, used as food.

4. The fur of a rabbit or hare.

5. Sports

a. A competitor who is designated to set a fast pace for a teammate during a long-distance race.

b. A racehorse that is run at a fast pace early in a race in order to tire the favorite so that another horse can take the lead.

c. A mechanical decoy that is propelled around the track in a greyhound race to incite the dogs.

intr.v. rab·bit·ed, rab·bit·ing, rab·bits

To hunt rabbits or hares.

[Middle English rabet, young rabbit, probably from Old French, from Middle Dutch robbe, rabbit.]

rab′bit·er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rabbiter

(ˈræbɪtə)

(Professions) chiefly Austral a person who traps and sells rabbits

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

Bob was a scruffy brown waif in Adelaide, gathered up with others to be a rabbiter's dog in 1884 when he appealed to railway man, Will Ferry, who bought him for his wife, Mary and named him Bob.

Parker, Olwyn M.: The Railway Dog: The True Story of an Australian Outback Dog

The only feasible method of harvesting, apart from the unconscionably cruel practice of trapping, seemed to be ferreting, supplemented with shooting, and I managed to track down a guy who called himself the last rabbiter in Victoria.

The anguish of wildlife ethics

This seventy-three-year old rabbiter routinely spent his pension on drinking sprees; on such occasions he would often disappear several days.

Country living, country dying: rural suicides in New Zealand, 1900-1950

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