Gransnet forums

Chat

"Skin a bunny"

(86 Posts)
eddiecat78 Sun 02-Feb-25 11:07:29

Anyone else familiar with this phrase? My mum used to say this when peeling off my vest over my head prior to a bath. I said it to my children and automatically said it to grandchildren too!

Freya5 Tue 04-Feb-25 11:04:50

As a Lincolnshire lass, this was a well known saying, to us kids from our parents and passed down to generation after.

JoyBloggs Tue 04-Feb-25 09:41:35

Yes, my mum said 'Skin a rabbit'!
I also remember her cooking one, but have never attempted that myself...

Rula Tue 04-Feb-25 09:38:47

Skin a rabbit! Not heard that for years! Both my grandma and mother says this.

And until now I never actually thought about what it literally meant!

Dizzyribs Tue 04-Feb-25 09:34:16

Skin a rabbit was used for getting undressed
Drowned rat when we were soaking wet
More than one way to kill a cat when the first try didn’t solve a problem.
I was told that a liberty bodice was called that because it was used to keep you warm without the restrictions of a corset and extra layers. I remember that the really posh ones came in packs with a picture of Peter Pan or the crocodile on them.

LadyGracie Tue 04-Feb-25 09:32:59

My lovely MIL used to say “skin a bunny rabbit” when undressing her GCs for a bath.
She was a ‘critical care baby nurse’ she probably said it to all her honorary babies too.

Feelthefear Mon 03-Feb-25 21:47:50

That's a phrase I haven't heard for years! My Gran used to say "skin a bunny-rabbit" when helping me get undressed.

I'd stick my arms in the air and she'd pull off my top or vest.

I'd never really thought about the reality, but she lived on farms and smallholdings for many many years!

Redcar Mon 03-Feb-25 21:28:53

My mum used to say skin a rabbit when undressing me when I was little. I said it to my girls when they were small too. During the war we kept chickens and rabbits. The rabbits were for food and for their fur. My granny taught my dad how to kill both chickens and rabbits and how to cure the rabbit skins, I had a rabbit skin pram cover and a fur bonnet when I was a baby.

M0nica Mon 03-Feb-25 21:02:51

My MiL's sisteriL, a farmers daughter who used to trap rabbits., showed me how to skin and eviscerate a rabbit - you have the get the bile duct out whole, I fit breaks the bile tainst the meat.

I have never yet needed to use this skill. But come the apocalypse, it may yet, still be a usefuls skill to have. (if I could rememeber it)

Indigo8 Mon 03-Feb-25 20:48:21

Whingeygrin

Whingey Mon 03-Feb-25 19:25:19

If you see a little bunny with its nose all green and runny you mustn't think it funny cos its snot

MissAdventure Mon 03-Feb-25 18:25:26

grin

Mamie Mon 03-Feb-25 17:54:32

MissAdventure

What did you keep in the pocket?
It must have got sweaty, with that lot on!

My sister used the knickers pocket for bits of school lunch she didn't like, figs frequently ended up there.

Etoile2701 Mon 03-Feb-25 17:54:12

No never. And I am glad I didn't. I don't like the implications.

midgey Mon 03-Feb-25 17:38:31

Always skin a rabbit in our family. But more ways to skin a cat when talking about different methods.

Indigo8 Mon 03-Feb-25 17:33:37

NotSpaghetti

Indigo8

Yes, but my mum used to say "Skin a rabbit". Maybe she said this version because she didn't like us using childish names for animals like gee-gee. I never understood why.

Probably because why do uou need to learn multiple words for the same thing?

What is wrong with cat, rabbit, pig? ......(and penis, vulva etc?)

Re the original question - peeling a tightish vest off a child is just like skinning a rabbit (as others have said) where the skin comes off in the same way.

Yes, it didn't stop there. We urinated, defaecated and had an umbilicus as well as using the proper words for everything else.
All a bit pointless if you ask me.

Greyduster Mon 03-Feb-25 17:15:06

When I was tying my own fishing flies, I sent away to a tying supplies shop for hares ear fur. To my horror I received the dressed mask of a hare complete with the ears!! I couldn’t even look at it let alone use it, so I sent it back!

creakingandchronic Mon 03-Feb-25 16:54:38

yes mum always said it to me and me to my children. mind when older grandchildren heard me say it to the tiny ones I think they think I have gone mad!
I don't think they are far wrong as I say it to my dog taking off his jumper style top!

winterwhite Mon 03-Feb-25 15:34:26

Skin a rabbit from my childhood too. Never used it myself with my own children though.

Pattypee Mon 03-Feb-25 15:29:05

Yes mum also used to say 'skin a rabbit' when getting undressed. However, as a then vegetarian - and now vegan - i would say 'skinny rabbits' which makes no sense whatsoever but for me better than the original saying. My kids still say 'skinny rabbits' to theirs too!

Thisismyname1953 Mon 03-Feb-25 15:16:05

My aunt was born in 1925 and at 15 got her first job in a butchers . One day a customer asked her for a rabbit and requested that he would like it dressed . She took a rabbit into the back of the shop and went missing for several minutes . Eventually the boss came looking for her and found her trying to stuff the rabbit into its fur coat ! The boss and the customer found it hilarious and the customer insisted his rabbit was left in its coat so he could take it home and show his wife .
My aunt passed thirty years ago but this always comes to mind when anyone talks about rabbits as food .

Dalfie5577 Mon 03-Feb-25 15:01:34

I automatically say it to my grandchildren when dressing them too!

wibblywobblywobblebottom Mon 03-Feb-25 14:34:29

Skin a rabbit.

grumppa Mon 03-Feb-25 14:01:36

DW said "skin a rabbit" to our children. I imagine she got it from her mother. Don't recall my mother ever saying it.

Chocolatelovinggran Mon 03-Feb-25 13:51:43

I fear my delicate grandchildren would be horrified if I used this phrase...

AuntieE Mon 03-Feb-25 13:45:58

yogitree

I'm in Scotland and if I came home drookit (soaking wet) from the rain, my mother would say I looked like a skinned rabbit.

Mine said we looked like dying sheep in a thunderstorm!

My great-aunt said "skin a rabbit" when she undressed us when we were small.