gutter rabbit

plural gutter rabbits

1. countableA cat, or cat meat (served as a substitute for rabbit).

   The Pastry Cook (ambulant) puts in his pies good gutter rabbits ( cats ) .

   1823, Charles Persius (aka Chales Dunne), Rouge et Noir. The Academicians of 1823, page 376

   5 more examples

   A waiter placed on the table a rabbit stew in a deep dish. Coupeau turned round. "Say, boy, is that a gutter rabbit? It mews still."

   1882, Émile Zola, L'Assommoir, page 113

   The dog population began to shrink, while cat carcasses were decorated with colored paper and hung in butcher shop windows above signs that proclaimed the delicate pleasures of the "gutter rabbits” for sale inside.

   2019, David W. Ball, Empires of Sand

   Rat salami became a delicacy, and butchered cats were sold as "gutter rabbits.”

   2019, Kathleen Sears, Socialism 101, page 76

   "Gutter-rabbit," as it was called, was plentiful enough for a time; but when Paris surrendered there was not a cat left in the city.

   1893, Henry Vizetelly, Glances Back Through Seventy Years, page 427

   During the siege of Paris, and even much later, in certain quarters of Paris, they'd eat 'gutter rabbit' and 'mutton-flavoured rat'.

   2023, Gérard Genette, Bardadrac, page 32

   Synonyms: roof rabbit