hare
pronunciation
How to pronounce hare in British English:
UK [heə(r)]
How to pronounce hare in American English:
US [her]
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- Noun:
- swift timid long-eared mammal larger than a rabbit having a divided upper lip and long hind legs; young born furred and with open eyes
- flesh of any of various rabbits or hares (wild or domesticated) eaten as food
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- Verb:
- run quickly, like a hare
Word Origin
- hare
- hare: [OE] The hare seems originally to have been named from its colour. The word comes from prehistoric West and North Germanic *khason, which also produced German hase, Dutch haas, and Swedish and Danish hare, and if as has been suggested it is related to Old English hasu ‘grey’ and Latin cascus ‘old’, its underlying meaning would appear to be ‘grey animal’ (just as the bear and the beaver are etymologically the ‘brown animal’, and the herring may be the ‘grey fish’). Harrier ‘dog for hunting hares’ [16] was derived from hare on the model of Old French levrier (French lièvre means ‘hare’, and is related to English leveret ‘young hare’ [15]); it was originally harer, and the present-day form arose from confusion with harrier ‘falcon’ [16], a derivative of the verb harry.=> harrier, herring, hoar
- hare (n.)
- Old English hara "hare," from West Germanic *hasan- (cognates: Old Frisian hasa, Middle Dutch haese, Dutch haas, Old High German haso, German Hase), of uncertain origin; possibly the original sense was "gray" (compare Old English hasu, Old High German hasan "gray"), from PIE *kas- "gray" (cognates: Latin canus "white, gray, gray-haired"). Perhaps cognate with Sanskrit sasah, Afghan soe, Welsh ceinach "hare." Rabbits burrow in the ground; hares do not.þou hast a crokyd tunge heldyng wyth hownd and wyth hare. ["Jacob's Well," c. 1440]
- hare (v.)
- "to harry, harass," 1520s; meaning "to frighten" is 1650s; of uncertain origin; connections have been suggested to harry (v.) and to hare (n.). Related: Hared; haring.
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. The first story was aesop 's fable the tortoise and the hare .
- 2. Water voles are declining , but brown hare and polecat populations are rising .
- 3. But when you look at the drawing again the rabbit looks like a hare .
- 4. A hunter brought in pheasant and hare and we had to pluck and clean them .
- 5. Without such a structure there would be no more for supper than the occasional hare .