hutch

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a cage or enclosed box in which rabbits or other small animals are kept

   The children put fresh straw in the rabbit's hutch.

2. 2
   noun

   US: a cabinet with cupboards below and open or glass-fronted shelves above

   The family displayed its china in a dining-room hutch.

From Middle English hucche, meaning a storage chest, influenced by Old French huche, also meaning a chest. The animal enclosure sense arose from the idea of a boxlike container; the American furniture sense preserves the older association with storage.

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