jackrabbitn.
/ˈdʒakˌrabɪt/, U.S. /ˈdʒækˌræbət/ Originally and chiefly North American.
1. Any of several hares of the genus Lepus found chiefly in the prairies and deserts of North America, having very long and broad ears.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) > [noun] > family Leporidae > genus Lepus (hares) > lepus townsendii (jack-rabbit)
prairie hare1840
jackass rabbit1847
mule-eared rabbit1855
mule rabbit1857
Texan hare1859
jackrabbit1863
Jack1864
mule-ear rabbit1889
mountain hare1923
1863 N. S. Keith Let. 24 Aug. in Colorado Mag. (1940) 17 69 We saw wolves, buffalos, antelopes, jack-rabbits, prairie-dogs innumerable, deer, and birds of various sizes.
1878 B. F. Taylor Between Gates 192 The ears of a Jack Rabbit..shut back like a knife-blade at hearing the wheels.
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.
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.
2013 New Yorker 5 Aug. 49/2 I've got shit tons of jackrabbits, and they will get about five feet away from me, 'cause I'm like the animal whisperer.
2. figurative and in allusive use.
a. A person reminiscent of jackrabbit in character or behaviour; spec. (esp. in early use) a sportsperson whose speed, acceleration, elusiveness, etc., when running is reminiscent of a jackrabbit.With quot. 1962 cf. jackrabbit start n. at Compounds 2.
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1922 G. Breckenridge Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty xxv. 199 He's some jackrabbit, too... You ought to see him in our school field meets.
1931 Univ. of Chicago Mag. Jan. 139/2 Paul Stephenson..is the other forward, a scurrying jackrabbit who is hard to handle.
1954 D. Schwartz in Avon Bk. Mod. Writing II. 129 Phoebe claimed that only a man of that age had the experience to teach you while the men of your own age are just jackrabbits.
1962 Amer. Speech 37 269 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.
2011 A. Hodgkinson 22 Britannia Road 82 A scared jackrabbit of a boy.
b. Prison slang. A prisoner who regularly attempts to escape. Also: an escaped prisoner. Cf. jackrabbit parole n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > action or operation > safety > escape > [noun] > one who escapes > from confinement or the law
fugitive1382
prison breaker1704
evader1754
refugee1754
absentee1803
escapee1875
escapado1881
escapist1934
jackrabbit1980
1980 J. McLendon Eddie Macon's Run x. 102 A lesson ‘jackrabbits’, escapees, learned in the dark.
1981 E. Bunker Little Boy Blue xiv. 152 He's the jackrabbit in the bunch.
1990 C. Shafer in F. E. Abernethy Bounty of Texas 208 Jack rabbit, a prisoner: with a reputation for taking advantage of escape opportunities.
2013 C. Johnson Serpent's Tooth 31 The keys are hanging in the holding cell, but I wouldn't turn my back on him for an instant—he's a jackrabbit.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive and objective (in sense 1), as jackrabbit fur, jackrabbit hunter, jackrabbit meat, etc.
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1878 Weekly Register-call (Central City, Colorado) 25 Oct. (headline) Return of the ‘jack-rabbit hunters’.
1887 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Jrnl. 13 June Its jackrabbit cannery has added two stamps, an amalgamator and a bone-scraper to its already ample stock of machinery.
1916 Arms & Man 6 Apr. 25/1 The Texans are not worrying about what will happen in the future regarding the demand for jackrabbit fur.
1991 Dog Fancy Jan. 25/1 Jackrabbit coursing is illegal in most states that allow racing.
2016 Phildelphia Inquirer (Nexis) 28 Dec. (City-D ed.) b4 Falconry has its practical benefits, such as the 60 pounds of jackrabbit meat from Kisak's trip that will feed his goshawks this winter.
b. attributive, with the sense ‘reminiscent of a jackrabbit running; fast, quick’, as jackrabbit acceleration, jackrabbit running, jackrabbit speed, etc.
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1910 Anaconda (Montana) Standard 22 May iii. 3/1 Strunk has jackrabbit speed and covers as much ground as any center fielder in the country.
1911 Amer. Lumberman 13 May 35/3 I know that such a jackrabbit pace in reading is a vile intellectual habit.
1936 Times 27 Apr. 6/1 The jack-rabbit running of H. Lind, the intelligent ubiquity of D. A. Thom, and the great pace of R. W. Dunn were only three of the things that made London Scottish dangerous.
2001 W. Schultz Org. Suburbanite ix. 69/2 Aggressive driving habits such as jack-rabbit acceleration or excessive speed can increase fuel consumption by as much as 50 percent.
C2.
jackrabbit start n. a start in which a motorist accelerates away from a stationary position extremely quickly; spec. (at a junction controlled by a traffic signal) a start in which a motorist accelerates before the green light is displayed.
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1941 Motor 15 Oct. 197/3 (caption) Motorists who waste gasoline by jack rabbit starts.
1958 Pop. Sci. Sept. 80/1 Too often the head driver on the cross street picks that moment for a jack-rabbit start.
1961 ‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death vii. 57 He was thrown backward by a jack-rabbit start from a stop sign.
2002 Time Out N.Y. 5 Sept. 19/1 The devices record where the car goes and how fast, plus how hard the driver brakes, and if he or she wears a seatbelt, makes jackrabbit starts, corners hard or doesn't look behind the vehicle before backing up.
jackrabbit parole n. Prison slang flight or escape from a prison or other institution; an instance of this; cf. sense 2b.
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1979 Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention in Wyoming: Hearing before U.S. Senate Judiciary Comm. (95th Congr., 2nd Sess.) 11 We had when I left 87 boys. That changes on a day-to-day basis because of what some kids affectionately refer to as a jackrabbit parole.
1993 C. Stroud Contempt of Court 7 Cops hated a man on jackrabbit parole to make it across any border.
2005 L. Allin Little Learning is Murderous Thing 201 Occasionally a desperado took jackrabbit parole.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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