rabbit board

English

Alternative forms

• (authority): Rabbit Board
• (restraint): rabbit-board

Etymology

From rabbit + board.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

rabbit board (plural rabbit boards)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) An authority responsible for the management and control of wild rabbits.
   • 1899, South Australian Parliament, Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia, volume 3, page 227:

     You speak of rabbit boards in the other colonies. […] You have had nothing to do with the rabbit boards in Queensland?

   • 1907, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Western Australia, Volume 15, Issue 1, page 325,

     I think the time is not too far distant when there will need to be rabbit boards appointed to deal with the pest locally, and with that in view I have had a draft of a new Act prepared by the Crown Law Department making provision for such, and have submitted it to you for your approval.

   • 1909, The Legislation of the Empire: Being a Survey of the Legislative Enactments of the British Dominions from 1898 to 1907, volume 1, page 471:

     Infested districts are proclaimed by the Governor, and thereupon a rabbit board shall be constituted to carry out the provisions of the Act.

   • 1936, New Zealand Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 243, page 235:

     There are about fifty or sixty Rabbit Boards in New Zealand, controlling a tremendous area of land, and it is necessary for them to supply farmers with certain poisons, […] .

   • 1976, Tom Lee McKnight, Friendly Vermin: A Survey of Feral Livestock in Australia, volume 21, page 6:

     Most notable in this regard have been the Rabbit Boards of Queensland […] .

   • 1980, Royal Australian Historical Society, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volumes 66-67, page 139,

     These bodies—pastures protection boards, stock boards, rabbit boards, and so on—discharged various reserved functions of local government, and made up a parallel hierarchy.

2. (veterinary medicine) A board on which a rabbit may be immobilised.
   • 1902, Harold Clarence Ernst, Animal Experimentation, page 97:

     Rabbits are fastened upon rabbit-boards and anesthetized with a mixture of three parts of ether and one of alcohol.

   • 1902, American Medical Association, The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 39, page 544:

     The laboratory should be supplied with chemical work tables and sinks ; a fume chamber; large water bath for 40 and 100 degrees C.; dog and rabbit boards; analytical balance; scales weighting 0.01 gm. to 20 gm.; […] .

   • 1978, Peter W. Jones, Ralph Freudenthal, Carcinogenesis—A Comprehensive Survey, volume 3, page 349:

     The animal is restrained on the rabbit board, with the level of the head slightly below the level of the heart, the neck region shaved with small animal clippers, and then palpated to locate the trachea.