rabbits

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rabbit.

   The farmer fenced off his lettuce to keep the rabbits out.

   A pair of rabbits grazed quietly at the edge of the meadow.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of the noun, and there are more of them than the animal alone. Rabbits can be pacesetters in a distance race, or weak batsmen in cricket. The meat and the fur stay uncountable, so a menu offers rabbit, not rabbits, and a collar is trimmed with rabbit.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of rabbit.

   My neighbor rabbits on about the weather every time we meet at the gate.

   Whenever the topic turns to cars, he rabbits endlessly without noticing the time.

   Note

   Every verb behind this form is intransitive, so it takes no object, and its meaning shifts with geography. In British use someone who rabbits talks on and on in a childish, tiresome way, usually followed by on or about. In American use the same form means running away. A third, plainer meaning, going out to hunt the animal, needs context to tell it apart.

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