rabbit hole en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From rabbit + hole. Extended senses reference Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice travels down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world.
Meanings
- (figuratively, usually, with an article) A bizarre world, where everyday rules do not apply.
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(figuratively, usually, with an article) A way into such a world.
You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
1999, The Wachowskis, 0:29:05 from the start, in The Matrix, spoken by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne):These mushrooms will take you down the rabbit hole, man.
Tumbling down the rabbit hole, she encountered a whole new level of existence where the laws of physics were turned upside down, shaken inside out and taken to the cleaners.
2012, Linda Hoy, The Effect, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN, page vii:
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(broadly, figuratively) A time-consuming tangent or detour, often one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.
While writing my paper, my research went down several rabbit holes that were only marginally related and wasted a lot of my time.
I felt pretty strongly that non-food supplements would be a complicated, expensive rabbit hole that rarely cure children fully of anxiety / autism / etc. (especially in the absence of enough nourishing food).
2018, GAPS Stories, Chelsea Green Publishing, →ISBN:I'm also a fan of a really obscure book series, but that's a rabbit hole that we won't get into.
Near-synonym: rabbit trail (regiolectic)
My point is not to go down the rabbit hole of deconstructing the term documentary, […]
2017, Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi, Mandy Rose, I-Docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary, →ISBN:
- (figuratively) The initial clue that leads to an alternate reality game.
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Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rabbit, hole. The entrance to a rabbit warren or burrow; the whole warren or burrow.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
1866, Lewis Carroll, chapter 1, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:There are two platforms (that on the down side is a island) but they are weed-grown, with many rabbit-holes, and there is no cover of any kind.
1953 June, B. D. J. Walsh, “Branch Lines to Thetford”, in Railway Magazine, page 378:As the limber gunners went to the rear, his horse trod in a rabbit-hole and came down, throwing him into a depression of the ground.
1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 83:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rabbithole | alternative | lexicographic | |
| rabbit holes | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| rabbit-hole | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Hypernyms
cuniculus · latibulum[Appendix:Glossary
Relateds
Synonyms
looking-glass · rabbit trail[regiolect]]ic> · trailhead · wild-goose chase
Translations (52)
de Abstecher (time-consuming tangent or detour) · fi kaninkolo ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · pl królicza nora (gaming: clue that leads to an alternate reality game) · de Nonsenswelt (bizarre world) · hu rejtelmek (time-consuming tangent or detour) · fr terrier (de lapin) ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · sv distraktion (time-consuming tangent or detour) · es meterse en honduras (time-consuming tangent or detour) · hu bonyodalom (time-consuming tangent or detour) · de Kaninchenloch ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · es jardín (time-consuming tangent or detour) · hu nyúlodú ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · fr écheveau (time-consuming tangent or detour) · fr dédale (time-consuming tangent or detour) · es entrada de una madriguera conejil ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu nyúlüreg ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · sv tidsdödare (time-consuming tangent or detour) · de Wunderland (bizarre world) · sv kaninhål ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · ga rapach ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu (detour) kitérő (time-consuming tangent or detour) · es agujero conejuno (time-consuming tangent or detour) · es madriguera conejil (time-consuming tangent or detour) · vo kroligahog ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · de zeitaufwendiges Unterfangen (time-consuming tangent or detour) · de Abschweifung (time-consuming tangent or detour) · pl królicza nora (bizarre world) · fr méandre (time-consuming tangent or detour) · nl konijnenhol ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · pl królicza nora (time-consuming tangent or detour) · sv utsvävning (time-consuming tangent or detour) · de Kaninchenhöhle ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu mellékvágány (time-consuming tangent or detour) · hu nyúl ürege/odúja/odva/vacka ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · de Nebengleis (time-consuming tangent or detour) · de Trip (bizarre world) · ga poll coinín ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · pl królicza nora ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · el κουνελότρυπα ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · ga poll coinicéir ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu vargabetű (time-consuming tangent or detour) · hu kacskaringó (time-consuming tangent or detour) · is kanínuhola ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · sv kaninhåla ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu útvesztő (time-consuming tangent or detour) · da kaninhul ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · ga súil choinicéir ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · es boquete de una madriguera conejuna ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · sv kaningryt ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · de Kaninchenbau ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · es madriguera ((entrance to) a rabbit warren or burrow) · hu szövevény (time-consuming tangent or detour)