a place where rabbits breed or abound.
a building or area containing many tenants in limited or crowded quarters.
Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.
Joseph, 1741–75, American physician, statesman, and patriot.
Mercy Otis, 1728–1814, U.S. historian and poet (sister of James Otis).
Robert Penn, 1905–89, U.S. novelist and poet: named the first U.S. poet laureate (1986–87).
a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.
a city in NE Ohio, NW of Youngstown.
a city in NW Pennsylvania.
a town in E Rhode Island.
a male given name: from a Germanic word meaning “protection.”
a series of interconnected underground tunnels in which rabbits live
a colony of rabbits
an overcrowded area or dwelling
an enclosed place where small game animals or birds are kept, esp for breeding, or a part of a river or lake enclosed by nets in which fish are kept (esp in the phrase beasts or fowls of warren )
English legal history a franchise permitting one to keep animals, birds, or fish in this way
1350–1400; Middle English warenne < Anglo-French; Old French g ( u ) arenne < Germanic *warinne game park, equivalent to *war- (base of *warjan to defend) + *-inne feminine noun suffix
When Bugs Bunny outruns Elmer Fudd and vanishes down his rabbit hole, he's escaping into a warren — a network of underground tunnels where rabbits live. A warren isn't just the maze-like tunnels where rabbits live. You may encounter a warren of subway tunnels or a warren of interconnected bomb shelters. Bring those narrow paths above ground and cluster them with homes and you have another kind of warren, or a maze-like residential area.
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The work depicts a group of characters who find themselves trapped in a warren of bizarrely laid-out rooms resembling empty offices, illuminated by a pallid yellow light.
From Barron's • May 28, 2026
The lot, however, is a congested warren of stages, offices, trailers and support facilities such as woodworking mills that date to the early 20th century.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026
“In short order the warren of oddly shaped rooms in the carriage house became spaces for lectures, workshops, and impromptu performances,” Mr. Gennari writes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
Sichuan Alley, which opened its first outlet in New York last year, is inspired by "alley culture" characteristic of early 20th Century Chengdu – a warren of old streets where people mingled and feasted.
From BBC • Aug. 16, 2025
By sunset the whole party—twenty rabbits all told—had made their way up the length of the beech hanger and reached the warren.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
