Bunny

//ˈbʌni// adj, name, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Easy or unchallenging.

    "Let’s start on the bunny slope."

  2. 2
    Resembling a bun (small bread roll). humorous, rare

    "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'."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A village and civil parish in Rushcliffe borough, Nottinghamshire, England (OS grid ref SK5829).
Noun
  1. 1
    A rabbit, especially a juvenile one. childish, informal

    "Scary-looking rabbits were hopping around Fort Collins. These weren’t your standard cute, fluffy bunnies; they had horn-like growths protruding from their faces and bodies."

  2. 2
    A swelling from a blow; a bump. UK, dialectal
  3. 3
    A culvert or short covered drain connecting two ditches. UK, dialectal
  4. 4
    Bunny chow; a snack of bread filled with curry. South-Africa

    "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."

  5. 5
    (usually informal) especially a young rabbit wordnet
Show 10 more definitions
  1. 6
    A bunny girl: a nightclub waitress who wears a costume having rabbit ears and tail.

    "‘Gwen has a job as a bunny because says she's sick of sex.’"

  2. 7
    A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.
  3. 8
    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. UK, dialectal

    "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."

  4. 9
    a young waitress in a nightclub whose costume includes the tail and ears of a rabbit wordnet
  5. 10
    In basketball, an easy shot (i.e., one right next to the bucket) that is missed.
  6. 11
    Any small drain or culvert. UK, dialectal
  7. 12
    A menstrual pad. euphemistic, slang

    "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'."

  8. 13
    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. UK, dialectal
  9. 14
    Synonym of rabbit (“batsman frequently dismissed by the same bowler”).
  10. 15
    A small pool of water. UK, dialectal

Etymology

Etymology 1

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).

Etymology 2

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).

Etymology 3

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.

Etymology 4

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.

Etymology 5

From bun (“small bread roll”) + -y.

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