▪ I. † ˈbunny1 Obs.
Forms: 5 bony, 6 bounny, 7 bonny, 6–7 bunnye, 6 bunny.
[perh. a. OF. bugne, beugne, var. forms of bigne, a swelling caused by a blow; cf. boine (dial.) under boin v.; also bunion.]
A lump, hump, or swelling; spec. a soft watery swelling on the joints of animals.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 43/2 Bony, or hurtynge Fleumon. Ibid. 44/1 Bony, or grete knobbe..gibbus. 1552 Huloet Bownche or bunnye, gibba. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. cclxxix. (1633) 793 Continual bunnies and looseness of certain joints. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. lxxvi. 347 The Hough bonny is a round swelling like a Paris ball. 1667 N. Fairfax in Phil. Trans. II. 482 In some places his head bled; in others Bunnyes arose. 1784 Sir J. Cullum Hist. Hawsted 170 A Bunny, a swelling from a blow. |
▪ II. bunny2
(ˈbʌnɪ)
[f. bun n.4 + -y.]
1. a. A pet name for a rabbit. † b. A term of endearment applied to women and children (obs.).
| 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Bunny, a Rabbit. 1719 D'Urfey Pills IV. 74 Downy as any Bunny. 1863 Fr. Kemble Resid. Georg. 258 Rabbits..slightly different from our English bunnies. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere vi. 46 Bunny gave a flick of his white tail. |
| 1606 Wily Beguil. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 252 Sweet Peg..my honey, my bunny, my duck, my dear. 1691 Ray S. & E. Country Wds., Bunny is also used as a flattering word to children. |
c. Rabbit-fur. colloq.
| 1950 H. McCloy Through Glass Darkly (1951) v. 44 Girls in wolf or bunny that looked almost like fox or ermine. 1955 M. Laski Apologies 59 You know bunny wears just as well. |
d. In full bunny girl. A night-club hostess, or the like, dressed in a costume which is partly imitative of a rabbit. Also attrib.
| 1960 Playboy Aug. 42/1 The girls are called Bunnies and they're invitingly attired in brightly coloured rabbit costumes, complete to the ears and white cotton tails. Ibid., Proportions..as remarkable as those of the Bunny Girls. 1963 Listener 7 Feb. 260/3 American Bunny Clubs, with their Freudian fantasy-tease hostesses. 1963 Daily Mail 16 Feb. 6/6 These bunnies are the newest import to London night⁓club life from America. Ibid. 6/7 The bunny costumes with their stylised unreality somehow defuse the provocation of the dress. 1966 ‘E. E. Sumner’ Second-hand Death vii. 131 The girl..worked as a night club Bunny. 1967 J. Gardner Madrigal i. 12 A fallen Bunny girl, with strange fetishes. |
2. Bunny Mouth: the Common Snapdragon. Antirrhinum majus. Also called Rabbit's Mouth.
| 1846 Sowerby Brit. Bot. 1847–78 in Halliwell. |
▸ bunny boiler n.with allusion to a scene in Adrian Lyne's U.S. film Fatal Attraction (1987), in which a character (played by Glenn Close) boils alive a pet rabbit belonging to her erstwhile lover's daughter slang (depreciative) (chiefly Brit.) a jealous or obsessive woman whose behaviour in pursuit of a former or intended partner is considered desperate or dangerous.
| 1990 Dallas Morning News 6 Dec. a2/3 There's nothing like portraying a psychopathic *bunny-boiler to boost one's self-esteem, Glenn Close tells Ladies' Home Journal. 1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together iii. 79 Linda's a bunny boiler, a one-night dream who turned into a six-week nightmare. 2002 M. Beaumont Book, Film, T-shirt (2003) xxi. 252 Hey up, I thought, a bunny-boiler—either she's after an autograph or she wants to take Rebecca home and bury her under the floorboards. |
▸ bunny slope n. Skiing (orig. U.S.) a gentle slope considered suitable for beginners; = nursery slope n. at nursery n. and adj. Compounds 3.
| 1954 Fresno (Calif.) Bee 10 Dec. 3 b/5 Skiers who want to use the rope tow on the *bunny slope there will have to ski in from the General Sherman tree. 1999 Times (Nexis) 30 Jan. Cath skied..top to bottom of the bunny slope doing linked snowplough turns. |
▪ III. ˈbunny3
‘In Mining. A pipe of ore or a mass—not a vein or lode.’ Ure Dict. Arts.
▪ IV. bunny4 dial.
(ˈbʌnɪ)
‘A small ravine opening through the cliff line to the sea; as in Chewton Bunny, Beckton Bunny. Also any small drain, culvert,’ etc. Cope Hampsh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) 1883.
| 1873 Blackmore Cradock N. xxxi. (1883) 180 The little village of Rushford was happy enough in its bunny. Ibid. 181 A boat house at the bottom of the bunny. |