leporines

Noun

leporine (plural leporines)

1. Synonym of leporid (“any mammal of the family Leporidae: the hares and rabbits”).
   • The most frequent intestinal parasite of rodents is probably Oxyuris ambigua, but Strong. retortæformis is tolerably abundant in the hare, and Trichocephalus unguiculatus is liable to occur in all leporines. […] Acari infest rats and mice, and especially leporines.1879, T[homas] Spencer Cobbold, “Parasites of Animals”, in Parasites; a Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals, including Some Account of the Ectozoa, London: J[ohn] & A[ugustus] Churchill, […]...

   Synonyms:

   leporid

2. (historical) A supposed hybrid between a hare and a rabbit, now known not to exist; a leporide.
   • I come now to the more interesting part of my subject, viz. that of the Leporines—hybrids, so called, between the hare and the rabbit. It has been stated that M. Rouy, of Angoulême, has bred for the market a thousand of these Leporines yearly—that they are fertile both with the hare and the rabbit...1861 February 26, Edwards Crisp, “On Some Points Relating to the Habits and Anatomy of the Oceanic and of the Freshwater Ducks, and also of the Hare (Lepus timidus) and of the Rabbit (L. cuniculus)...

See all 3 meanings of leporine