Word.ws English Dictionary

rabbet

/ˈɹæb.ɪt/

rabbet noun: a longitudinal channel, groove, or recess cut out of the edge or face of a plank of wood or other material; especially, one intended to fit another member to form a joint. Also the obsolete form of rabbit.

Noun

rabbet (plural rabbets)

  1. A longitudinal channel, groove, or recess cut out of the edge or face of a plank of wood or other material; especially, one intended to fit another member to form a joint.
    • Cut a deep rabbet along the back edge of the top and bottom of the cabinet. This will be for the ship-lap back to seat into and needs to be large enough to allow the back to be screwed or nailed into place.2026 August, Logan Wittmer, “Whiskey Cabinet”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 54
    Synonyms:
    rebate

Verb

rabbet (third-person singular simple present rabbets, present participle rabbeting, simple past and past participle rabbeted)

  1. (transitive) To cut a rabbet in a piece of material.
    Synonyms:
    rebate

Also used as

rabbet is also the obsolete form of rabbit.

Synonyms of rabbet

Forms of rabbet

Noun
pluralrabbets
Verb
third-person singular presentrabbets
present participlerabbeting
past participlerabbeted
pastrabbeted

Origin of rabbet

From Middle English rabeten, from Old French raboter, rabouter (“to thrust back”, verb), from Old French re- + boter, bouter. Doublet of rebut. The noun is from Middle English rabet, from Old French rabot, from the verb.

Words formed from rabbet

Phrases with rabbet

Words that rhyme with rabbet

Questions about rabbet

What does rabbet mean?
Rabbet means a longitudinal channel, groove, or recess cut out of the edge or face of a plank of wood or other material; especially, one intended to fit another member to form a joint.
What part of speech is rabbet?
Rabbet can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rabbet?
Rabbet is pronounced /ˈɹæb.ɪt/.
What is the plural of rabbet?
The plural of rabbet is rabbets.

Words near rabbet in the dictionary

  1. rabbanist
  2. rabbanists
  3. rabbanite
  4. rabbanites
  5. Rabbermann
  6. rabbet
  7. rabbet joint
  8. rabbet joints
  9. rabbet plane
  10. rabbet planes
  11. rabbeted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rabbet (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-rabbet.wav.

Cite this entry: “rabbet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rabbet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.