As wrong as six rabbits

Posted by ESC on January 24, 2009 at 18:33

In Reply to: As wrong as six rabbits posted by Dennis White on January 24, 2009 at 08:02:

: This is a phrase my mother-in-law uses when someone has committed an offence against another person - "That's as wrong as six rabbits". Does anyone have any idea what that means or where it came from?

So far I've found some supertitions about rabbits including that it is bad luck to meet a rabbit on your way to a boat/ship or to mention one while onboard. Someone who wishes you ill might nail a rabbit skin to the mast. (Encyclopedia of Superstitions by E. and M.A. Radford, edited and revised by Christina Hole, Barnes and Noble Books, 1996. First published in 1948.) Rabbit meaning an amateur or poor performer at cricket, for an example. (Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable revised by John Ayto, HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 2005, Seventeenth Edition). There's rabbit to mean a prisoner who runs away. Where was your mother-in-law born and raised? That might narrow it down.

• As wrong as six rabbits Graham Cambray 24/January/09