buy the rabbit

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

According to Hotten: from an old story about a man selling a cat to a foreigner as a rabbit.

Verb[edit]

buy the rabbit (third-person singular simple present buys the rabbit, present participle buying the rabbit, simple past and past participle bought the rabbit)

  1. (UK, slang, archaic) To get the worst of a bargain.
    • 1895, Horace White, Money and Banking, page 253:
      This is ruffian-like, by superiority of numbers to endeavor to make honest people buy the rabbit.

References[edit]

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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