Leporine
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of leporid (“any mammal of the family Leporidae: the hares and rabbits”).
"The most frequent intestinal parasite of rodents is probably Oxyuris ambigua, but Strong. retortæformis is tolerably abundant in the hare, and Trichocephalus unguiculatus is liable to occur in all leporines. […] Acari infest rats and mice, and especially leporines."
- 2 A supposed hybrid between a hare and a rabbit, now known not to exist; a leporide. historical
"I come now to the more interesting part of my subject, viz. that of the Leporines—hybrids, so called, between the hare and the rabbit. It has been stated that M. Rouy, of Angoulême, has bred for the market a thousand of these Leporines yearly—that they are fertile both with the hare and the rabbit, and with each other."
- 1 Of, relating to, or characteristic of a hare or a rabbit. also, figuratively, not-comparable
"His leporine ears perked up at the mention of dessert."
Example
More examples"His leporine ears perked up at the mention of dessert."
Etymology
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin leporīnus + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Leporīnus is derived from leporis (the genitive singular form of lepus (“hare”)) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). The noun is derived from the adjective.
More for "leporine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.