rabbit hole

[ rab-it hohl ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a tunnel made in the ground by a rabbit; a rabbit burrow.
Informal. a strange, disorienting, or frustrating situation or experience, typically one that is difficult to navigate: I have been down the rabbit hole of building a new home.
I had a history of depression and occasionally fell down dark, deep rabbit holes from which only medication and therapy could pull me out.
I have been down the rabbit hole of building a new home.
Informal. a time-consuming distraction of one's attention as happens when clicking through online links, following social media posts, or pursuing information:
After diving down an internet rabbit hole and poring over treatments, risks, and so on, she felt even more panicked.

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First recorded in 1660–70; rabbit hole def 2 was first recorded in 1935–40, from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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"That bubble we're in, it can be a little too far down the rabbit hole. Be grateful for the good and the bad, just deal with it."

From BBC

“Where we’re getting our news from, and what rabbit holes we’re down, completely seem to inform and infect our belief system,” Strauss says.

Kennedy has spent two decades diving so far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole that he now sounds like he doubts even basic germ theory.

In some cases, as happened here, they go far enough down the rabbit hole that they talk themselves into violence.

Boredom was especially high during the pandemic, which is why so many otherwise stable people went straight down the conspiracy rabbit hole.

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