bunny

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See also: Bunny

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From bun (“rabbit”) +‎ -y (diminutive suffix). 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. Compare also English bum. Together with rabbit, bunny has largely displaced its former rhyme cony (see cony for more).

Noun

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bunny (plural bunnies)

  1. (informal, childish) A rabbit, especially a juvenile one.
  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.
  4. (slang, euphemistic) A menstrual pad.
    • 1992, Maureen Sutton, We Didn't Know Aught, page 17:
      A local chemist remembers: My grandmother made home-made sanitary towels from a type of muslin. They were hand-knitted, washed and re-used. Other women used netting and cotton wool. Home-made towels were known as 'bunnies'.
    • 2007, E. J. McNair, A British Army Nurse in the Korean War, page 177:
      Frustratingly for us, it appeared to be much less of a hassle to purchase an expensive fountain pen, than to find, let alone buy, the smallest bottle of deodorant or a packet of Bunnies (as sanitary towels were nicknamed)!
  5. (cricket) Synonym of rabbit (“batsman frequently dismissed by the same bowler”)
Derived terms
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Translations
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Adjective

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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
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Etymology 2

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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

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Noun

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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

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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

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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

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Noun

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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

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From bun (“small bread roll”) +‎ -y.

Adjective

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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
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