rabbit hole

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A bizarre world, where everyday rules do not apply.

2. 2

   A way into such a world.

   • These mushrooms will take you down the rabbit hole, man.
   • You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
   • Tumbling down the rabbit hole, she encountered a whole new level of existence where the laws of physics were turned upside down, shaken inside out and taken to the cleaners.
3. 3

   A time-consuming tangent or detour, often one from which it is difficult to extricate…

   A time-consuming tangent or detour, often one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.

   • Near-synonym: rabbit trail (regiolectic)
   • I'm also a fan of a really obscure book series, but that's a rabbit hole that we won't get into.
   • While writing my paper, my research went down several rabbit holes that were only marginally related and wasted a lot of my time.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      The initial clue that leads to an alternate reality game.

   2. 5

      Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

      Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rabbit, hole. The entrance to a rabbit warren or burrow; the whole warren or burrow.

      • The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
      • As the limber gunners went to the rear, his horse trod in a rabbit-hole and came down, throwing him into a depression of the ground.
      • There are two platforms (that on the down side is a island) but they are weed-grown, with many rabbit-holes, and there is no cover of any kind.

The neighborhood