Etymology

It was inspired by a scene in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction where a scorned woman (played by Glenn Close), seeking revenge on her ex-lover (played by Michael Douglas), places his beloved family pet in a pot of boiling water when he is away from the house. The scene concludes with the family returning to the house with the child in the garden searching for the rabbit and the wife taking the lid off a boiling-over pot to reveal the deceased pet. (Parts of that scene were cut from syndicated broadcasts.)

Its first known appearance in print was on December 6, 1990, when the Dallas Morning News reported on a Ladies' Home Journal interview with Glenn Close and introduced it by referring to her erstwhile character as a "bunny-boiler." The phrase appeared in print with increasing frequency beginning in 1994.

Noun

1. A pejorative term for an obsessive and dangerous individual, referring to a former lover who stalks the person who spurned them.
2. An excessively obsessive girlfriend (or less commonly, boyfriend), especially one who reacts in an extreme way to the ending of a relationship.

See also

• Wikipedia article on Fatal Attraction
• IMDB reference to Fatal Attraction