wabbit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwæ.bɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -æbɪt

Etymology 1

Scots wabbit, ultimate origin uncertain.

Adjective

wabbit (comparative more wabbit, superlative most wabbit)

1. (Scotland) Exhausted, tired.

Etymology 2

Representing pronunciation of rabbit by children and some adults who have trouble saying the English r (the cartoon character Elmer Fudd is a caricature of the latter). Computing sense refers to the ability of rabbits to multiply quickly.

Noun

wabbit (plural wabbits)

1. (humorous, childish, pronunciation spelling) A rabbit.
2. (computing) A self-replicating computer process that (unlike a virus or worm) does not infect host programs or documents and remains on the local computer rather than spreading across networks of computers. [from 1974]

   Coordinate term: fork bomb

   • 2002, Philip E. N. Howard, “Hacktivism”, in Steve Jones, editor, Encyclopedia of New Media, SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 216:

     For example, a hacker might write a quine virus program that generates complete copies of itself as part of its output, a worm virus program that reproduces itself across a network, or a wabbit virus program designed to perpetually duplicate itself, at least until the system crashes. In contrast to the wabbit's slow growth, a fork bomb quickly generates multiple copies itself^[sic].

Further reading

• fork bomb on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Scots

Alternative forms

• wibbit, wubbit, wappit

Etymology

Uncertain.

Adjective

wabbit (comparative mair wabbit, superlative maist wabbit)

1. exhausted; without energy; tired; worn-out