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

Backrooms is a powerful digital rabbit hole IP, and A24, in their marketing campaign, spoke to those deep backrooms of fans in Reddit (more on that further down). —Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 31 May 2026

Alice tumbled down a rabbit hole; Lucy wandered through a wardrobe. —Justin Chang, New Yorker, 31 May 2026

Since at least 1998’s Music Has the Right to Children, brothers Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison have notoriously laced their music with esoteric details that send devoted fans spiraling down rabbit holes, and perhaps no symbol holds a more privileged position in their lore than the hexagon. —Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 29 May 2026

There are conspiracy theories aplenty around this, but that’s another rabbit hole entirely. —Sophia Zhang, Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 May 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