rabbit hole

noun

: a complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends

I wanted to show this woman descending into the rabbit hole: this loss of self, becoming a servant to her job and to the work.

—Jessica Chastain

especially : one in which the pursuit of something (such as an answer or solution) leads to other questions, problems, or pursuits

… I went around telling all my friends about the samurai colony that once existed in Northern California. No one had ever heard of it. And, up until a few days before, deep down another internet rabbit hole, neither had I.

—Katie Dowd

Because it is so early on in this work it is easy to say that we are either at the edge of a remarkable new and useful science or that we are careering down an environmental rabbit hole.

—Jack Hitt

In the season-two premiere of HBO's Westworld, viewers were again tossed down a rabbit hole filled with theories, where one open door leads to many more closed ones.

—Josh Wigler and Zoe Haylock

Synonyms of rabbit hole

• dilemma
• predicament
• pickle
• hole
• bind
• swamp
• corner

Examples of rabbit hole in a Sentence

shoreline residents are finding themselves helplessly falling down a rabbit hole in their Sisyphean efforts to halt beach erosion

Recent Examples on the Web

The guidance specified that Fox’s programs should not follow Trump down a conspiratorial rabbit hole relating to the 2020 election. — Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2026

Trust your instincts without going down the rabbit hole of confusion. — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 3 Sep. 2026

Defense protestations aside, the impact of Davis’s own voice on jurors seemed clear, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal managed to keep the multiple investigations and hip-hop rivalry testimony from falling down a rabbit hole. — John L. Smith, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2026

To him, Leah had gone down a TikTok rabbit hole and never come out. — Ruby Cramer, New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

from the rabbit hole that Alice enters in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rabbit hole

• amphibole
• asystole
• buttonhole
• casserole
• centriole
• decontrol
• glycerol
• metropole
• monopole
• multipole
• omeprazole
• oriole