ˈjack-ˈrabbit U.S.
[Short for jackass-rabbit (see jackass 5); so called from its long ears.]
One of several species of large prairie-hares (Lepus campestris, L. callotis, etc.), with remarkably long ears and legs. Also attrib. and fig.
| 1863 N. S. Keith Let. 24 Aug. in Colorado Mag. (1940) XVII. 69 We saw wolves, buffalos, antelopes, jack-rabbits, prairie-dogs innumerable, deer, and birds of various sizes. 1882 Harper's Mag. Nov. 869 The jack-rabbits speed to their holes with long kangaroolike bounds. 1897 B. Harraden Hilda Strafford 215 She would never again go..chasing the jack-rabbits and the cotton-tails. 1906 Chambers's Jrnl. July 538/1 For miles one may ride without seeing a living thing larger than a jack-rabbit. 1929 W. Faulkner Sartoris iii. iv. 206 The mules flapped their jack-rabbit ears. 1961 ‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) vii. 57 He was thrown backward by a jack-rabbit start from a stop sign. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 269 Jack rabbit, a motorist who is proficient at watching the cross-street traffic light; when it turns yellow, he starts up and is into the intersection before the light in front of him has turned green. 1963 D. P. Mannix All Creatures Great & Small xi. 180 We saw our first live jackrabbit just at dawn while crossing the plains of Nebraska. A big, white-tailed jack with black-and-white squares like signal flags on his long ears bolted across the road. 1972 Guardian 16 Dec. 10/1 You surely have hit the jack-rabbit on the head with a fire-iron. |