Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
RABBIT
I. noun (plural rabbit or rabbits)
Usage: often attributive see: rub
Date: 14th century
any of a family (Leporidae) of long-eared short-tailed lagomorph mammals with long hind legs:, any of various lagomorphs that are born furless, blind, and helpless, that are sometimes gregarious, and that include especially the cottontails of the New World and a small Old World mammal ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) that is the source of various domestic breeds, hare , the pelt of a rabbit, Welsh rabbit ,
4. a figure of a rabbit sped mechanically along the edge of a dog track as an object of pursuit, a runner in a long-distance race who sets a fast pace for the field in the first part of the race, rabbity adjective
II. intransitive verb
Date: 1846
to hunt rabbits, rabbiter noun