rabbit hole

noun

: a complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends

I wanted to show this woman descending into the rabbit hole: this loss of self, becoming a servant to her job and to the work.—

Jessica Chastain

especially : one in which the pursuit of something (such as an answer or solution) leads to other questions, problems, or pursuits

While trying to find the picture again on Google, I fell down the Cosmo rabbit hole, scrolling through a gallery of swimwear, then through "How to Be Sexier-Instantly" and then through all 23 slides of "Sexy Ideas for Long Hair." —

Edith Zimmerman

Because it is so early on in this work it is easy to say that we are either at the edge of a remarkable new and useful science or that we are careering down an environmental rabbit hole. —

Jack Hitt

In the season-two premiere of HBO's Westworld, viewers were again tossed down a rabbit hole filled with theories, where one open door leads to many more closed ones. —

Josh Wigler and Zoe Haylock

Examples of rabbit hole in a Sentence

shoreline residents are finding themselves helplessly falling down a rabbit hole in their Sisyphean efforts to halt beach erosion

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Of course, not everyone who had these concerns went down the Q rabbit hole. —

Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 31 Jan. 2025 But the quest for knowledge took me down a warm and wonderful rabbit hole for this, the last in our National Soup Month series for 2025 (and on a day that began with 40 degree temps, yikes!). —

Amy Drew Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 29 Jan. 2025 To foster more civic engagement, journalists will need to do a better job of reaching groups that are tuning out the mainstream press and falling into rabbit holes of misleading online commentary. —

John Delury, Foreign Affairs, 27 Jan. 2025 By Annie Blackman Keke Palmer Reacts to TikTok Trends Keke Palmer goes down the TikTok rabbit hole to check out some popular trends! —

Annie Blackman, Allure, 24 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for rabbit hole