rabbit hole
noun phrase

- also rabbit burrow, a hole in the ground dug by wild rabbits and leading to a warren

- (informal) a surreal or bewildering situation
 
- (informal) a series of linked pages on the internet that create a prolonged distraction from one’s work or business

Collins Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

The term “rabbit hole” has been used since at least the early 20th century to refer to a hole in the ground made by rabbits. It gained new meaning after the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, in which the young heroine falls down a rabbit hole and enters a fantastical world.

The phrase was later adopted by the counterculture of the 1960s to describe the experience of taking psychedelic drugs and entering an altered state of consciousness.

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LEWIS CARROLL - DID YOU KNOW?

- Before he became a writer, Lewis Carroll was a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he taught for 26 years. He was known for his ability to explain complex mathematical concepts in an easy-to-understand manner.

- Despite his great talent for writing, Lewis Carroll suffered from a stammer, which made it difficult for him to speak in public. Preferring to communicate through writing, he often wrote letters instead of speaking face-to-face.

- Carroll was an avid photographer and one of the first people to take portraits of children. He particularly enjoyed taking pictures of young girls, many of which have become famous.

- Lewis Carroll was known for his love of wordplay—inventing words and phrases that have since become part of the English language. For example, he coined the term “chortle,” a combination of “chuckle” and “snort”, which is now a recognized word in the Oxford English Dictionary.

- Although his writings are often associated with fantasy and nonsense, Lewis Carroll was a devout Anglican who took his faith very seriously. He regularly attended church services and even considered becoming a clergyman at one point in his life.

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SYNONYMS

- a complex or confusing situation that is difficult to get out of

bottomless pit, Catch-22, Chinese puzzle, conundrum, deep dive, dilemma, enigma, Gordian knot, hall of mirrors, imbroglio, labyrinth, maze,, paradox, predicament, puzzle, quagmire, RABBIT HOLE, riddle, rubik’s cube, snarl, tangled web

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“I was looking up a recipe for chocolate cake, and before I knew it, I had fallen down a RABBIT HOLE of cat videos. Did you know that cats can get brain freeze from eating ice cream?"

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