rabbit – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to rabbit on
Participle: rabbited on
Gerund: rabbiting on

Cognates

-

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	rabbit on
we	Let's rabbit on
you	rabbit on

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to talk incessantly and childishly

prattle

to move at full speed in retreat; to escape

absquatulate, amscray, beat a retreat, beat feet, beat it, blow this popsicle stand, bolt, book it, do a bunk, flee, fly the coop, get lost, get out, gnash, head for the hills, hightail, hightail it, hit the road, jump, kick rocks, leg it, make a break for it, make a run for it, make tracks, namous, peg it, run a mile, run away, run for the hills, run off, scamper, scarper, scat, scram, shemozzle, skedaddle, take a powder, take flight, take off, take to one's heels, take to the hills, tear off, turn tail, vamoose

to talk too much; to talk idly

babble, bat the breeze, blab, blabber, blather, chat, chatter, chew the fat, chew the rag, chinwag, chit-chat, chunner, clack, claver, clepe, drivel, gabble, gibber, go on, jabber, maunder, natter, palaver, piffle, prate, prattle, rabbit on, ramble, shoot the breeze, shoot the bull, shoot the shit, smatter, tattle, twaddle, waffle, wibble, witter, yabber, yack, yap, yatter

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. Inherited from Middle English rabet, rabette, from Anglo-Latin rabettus, from dialectal Old French rabotte, probably a diminutive of Middle Dutch or West Flemish robbe (“rabbit, seal”), of uncertain origin; possibly some imitative verb, maybe robben, rubben (“to rub”) is used here to allude to a characteristic of the animal. See rub.
2. Related forms include Middle French rabouillet (“baby rabbit”) and in French rabot (“plane”)), coming via Walloon Old French (reflected nowadays as Walloon robète (“rabbit”)), from Middle Dutch robbe ("rabbit; seal"; whence Modern Dutch rob (“rabbit", also "seal”)); also Middle Low German robbe, rubbe (“rabbit”), and the later German Low German Rubbe, Robb (“seal”), West Frisian robbe (“seal”), Saterland Frisian Rubbe (“seal”), North Frisian rob (“seal”), borrowed into German Robbe (“seal”).
3. Meant "young rabbit" until the 19th c., when it came to replace the original general term cony, owing to the latter's resemblance to and use as a euphemism for cunny, "vulva" (compare ass and donkey).
4. Note that there is no inherited Germanic word for rabbits, since hares are the only leporids native to Britain (as with all of Europe outside the Iberian Peninsula and southwest France); rabbits were introduced from France in the late Middle Ages, likely after the Norman Invasion. (Fittingly, hare is indeed inherited from Proto-Germanic.) See: Wallon 'robète', Frisian, Saterlandic 'Rubbe'.

Sample Sentences