bunny

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From bun (“rabbit”) +‎ -y. Probably from Scottish Gaelic bun (“bottom, butt, stump, stub”), from Old Irish bun (“the thick end of anything, base, butt, foot”), from Proto-Celtic *bonus, though its origin is uncertain. Together with rabbit, bunny has largely displaced its former rhyme cony (see cony for more).

Noun[edit]

bunny (plural bunnies)

  1. A rabbit, especially a juvenile.
  2. A bunny girl: a nightclub waitress who wears a costume having rabbit ears and tail.
    • 1969, Doris Lessing, The Four-Gated City, Flamingo 1993 edition, page 578:
      ‘Gwen has a job as a bunny because says she's sick of sex.’
  3. (sports) In basketball, an easy shot (i.e., one right next to the bucket) that is missed.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bunny (comparative bunnier, superlative bunniest)

  1. (skiing) Easy or unchallenging.
    Let’s start on the bunny slope.
    • 2014, Carey Heywood, Sawyer Says: A Companion Novel to Him and Her, →ISBN:
      We are on the bunniest of bunny hills. I've fallen no fewer than six times and I love every minute of it.
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English bony, boni (“swelling, tumor”), from Old French bugne, buigne (“swelling, lump”), from Old Frankish *bungjo (“swelling, bump”), from Proto-Germanic *bungô, *bunkô (“lump, clump, heap, crowd”). More at bunion, bunch.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunny (plural bunnies)

  1. (UK dialectal) A swelling from a blow; a bump.
  2. (mining) A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English bune (“hollow stalk or stem, drinking straw”), from Old English bune (“cup, beaker, drinking vessel; reed, cane”), of unknown origin. Related to English bun, boon (“the stalk of flax or hemp less the fibre”), Scots bune, boon, been, see bun, boon. Compare also bunweed.

Noun[edit]

bunny (plural bunnies)

  1. (UK dialectal) A culvert or short covered drain connecting two ditches.
  2. (UK dialectal) A chine or gully formed by water running over the edge of a cliff; a wooded glen or small ravine opening through the cliff line to the sea.
    • 1983, Geoffrey Morley, Smuggling in Hampshire and Dorset, 1700-1850 (page 72)
      Friar's Cliff and Highcliffe have always been what the second name suggests: cliffs too high to scale easily and with no convenient bunnies, chines or combes.
  3. (UK dialectal) Any small drain or culvert.
  4. (UK dialectal) A brick arch or wooden bridge, covered with earth across a drawn or carriage in a water-meadow, just wide enough to allow a hay-wagon to pass over.
  5. (UK dialectal) A small pool of water.

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

bunny (plural bunnies)

  1. (South Africa) Bunny chow; a snack of bread filled with curry.
    • 2008, Steve Pike, Surfing South Africa, page 258:
      Surfers from Durban grew up on bunnies. You get the curry in the bread with the removed square chunk, used to dunk back in the curry.

Etymology 5[edit]

From bun (“small bread roll”) +‎ -y.

Adjective[edit]

bunny (comparative more bunny or bunnier, superlative most bunny or bunniest)

  1. (rare, humorous) Resembling a bun (small bread roll). [since the 1960s, but always rare]
    • 2012, Sue Simkins, Cooking With Mrs Simkins, →ISBN:
      If you would like to make some buns with more of a Chelsea bunlike texture follow the recipe above, but increase the flour to 300g (11oz). This will make them less rich and more 'bunny'.
    • 2014, Bruce Montague, Wedding Bells and Chimney Sweeps, →ISBN:
      Before the interregnum, the cakes made for weddings had been pathetic offerings, consisting mainly of piles of biscuits and scones. When you read the list of ingredients -- sugar, eggs, milk, flour, currents, and spices -- these must have looked and tasted a lot like hot cross buns, but without being hot, without the cross, and without being particularly bunny.
Synonyms[edit]
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