| 释义 |
▪ I. hare, n.|hɛə(r)|
Forms: 1–2 hara, 2– hare, (4–5 haar(e, hayre, 5 are, 6–7 Sc. hair(e).
[A Com. Teut. n.: OE. hara, = OFris. hase (WFris. haeze, MDu. haese, hāze, Du. haas), OHG. haso (MHG., MLG., mod. Ger. hase), ON. here, heri (Sw., Da. hare):—OTeut. *hason-, *hazon-, cognate with OPruss. sasins (for szasins) hare. Cf. also Skr. çaça (? for çasa) hare. Relationship to the OE. adj. hasu, heasu ‘grey, ash-coloured’ is doubtful. The OE. and Norse words show rhotacism, the latter with resulting umlaut.]
1. a. A rodent quadruped of the genus Lepus, having long ears and hind legs, a short tail, and a divided upper lip.
The common hare of Great Britain and Europe (L. timidus), is a timid, watchful, and very swift animal. ‘Its eyes are so situated, that the animal can see nearly all around it’ (Carpenter); hence, prob., the popular saying that it sleeps with its eyes open (Topsell): cf. hare-eyed, hare's eye, hare-sleep, in 6. A less common species or subspecies is the Alpine or varying hare (L. variabilis). In North America there are several species or subspecies, of which L. Americanus comes closest to the common European hare.
a700Epinal Gloss. 608 Lepus, leporis, hara [Erf. Gloss. hæra]. 1154O.E. Chron. an. 1086 (Earle) 222 He sætte be þam haren þæt hi mosten freo faran. a1250Owl & Night. 383 Ich mai iseon so wel so on hare. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 210 About þei gan him chace, and hunted him als hayre. 1382Wyclif Lev. xi. 6 An haar [1388 hare] forsothe [is vnclene], for and he chewith kude. 1436Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 186 Skynnes of otere, squerel, and Irysh are. 1486Bk. St. Albans F vj, A Trippe of haaris. 1597Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 15, I saw the hurcheoun and the hair, Quha fed amangis the flowris fair. 1678Marvell Growth Popery 23 As much out of order, as if..an Hare had crossed his way. 1684R. H. School Recreat. 8 The Hare the first Year a Leveret, 2 a Hare, 3 a great Hare. 1820Keats Eve of St. Agnes i, The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass. 1847Carpenter Zool. §236 The Alpine or varying Hare (so named from its usual residence, and from the changes of colour which it undergoes), inhabits the northern parts of Scotland, the mountainous parts of Ireland, and has been occasionally seen in the mountains of Cumberland. 1884St. James' Gaz. 7 Aug. 4/2 The white hare has risen in value during the last two seasons.
b. The male or buck hare is sometimes called Jack hare. During March (the breeding season) hares are wilder than at other times; hence the proverbial saying as mad as a March hare.
1529More Supp. Soulys Wks. 299/2 As mad not as a march hare, but as a madde dogge. a1631Drayton Nymphidia, Oberon..grew as mad as any hare, When he had sought each place with care, And found his queen was missing. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 300 The Males are usually call'd Jack Hares. 1783Cowper Epit. on Hare 8 Old Tiny..Who, nursed with tender care,..Was still a wild Jack hare. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. iv. viii, For what is Hamlet, but a hare in March? 1865L. Carroll Alice's Adv. Wonderland vi. (1886) 90 ‘In that direction..lives a Hatter: and in that direction..lives a March Hare..they're both mad.’
2. Phrases and Proverbs. to hold (or run) with the hare and run (or hunt) with the hounds; to run with hare and hounds: to try to keep in with both sides; to play a double part. first catch your hare (i.e. as the first step to cooking him): a direction jestingly ascribed to Mrs. Glasse's Cookery Book, but of much more recent origin.
† to hunt for or catch a hare with a tabor; † to take hares with foxes, † to seek a hare in a hen's nest, also to set the tortoise to catch the hare: to seek to do something almost impossible. † to kiss the hare's foot: to be late. † to have two hares afoot or to run after two hares: to undertake too many things. to get the hare's foot to lick: to obtain very little. to make a hare of: to make ridiculous. † to set the hare's head (foot, hare-pie) against the goose-giblet: to let one thing serve as a set-off to another. here or there the hare went or goes away: here or there the matter ended. Also, expressions referring to æsop's Fable of the Race between the Hare and the Tortoise.
1399Langl. Rich. Redeles i. 58 Men myȝtten as well haue huntyd an hare with a tabre As aske ony mendis ffor þat þei mysdede. c1440Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 263 Þou hast a crokyd tunge heldyng wyth hownd and wyth hare. 1539Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 36 As I say in our Englyshe prouerbe: Set the hares head against the gose gyblet. [See also 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 52; 1607 Dekker Westw. Hoe v. iv, Dram. Wks. 1873, and note.] 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 17 And yet shall we catche a hare with a taber, As soone as catche ought of them. 1562Ibid. 137 Holde with the hare and run with the hounde, run thare As wight as the hounde, and as wyse as the hare. 1577Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. in Holinshed (1807–8) VI. 52 But in deed it is hard to take hares with foxes. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 137 You are the Hare of whom the Prouerb goes Whose valour plucks dead Lyons by the beard. 1599Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (Percy Soc.) 103 Hee is gone to seek a hayre in a hennes nest..which is as sildome seene as a blacke swan. 1600Holland Livy xxxv. xlv. 914 And here went the hare away. 1613–16W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. ii, We had need Make haste away, unlesse we meane to speed With those that kisse the Hares foot. 1633Rowley Match Midn. v. in Hazl. Dodsley XIII. 88 As I have been bawd to the flesh, you have been bawd to your money; so set the hare-pie against the goose-giblets. 1658–9Burton Diary 9 Mar. (1828) IV. 108 Keep to your debate. You have two hares a-foot. You will lose both. a1683Sidney Disc. Govt. ii. xxiii. (1704) 151 An ill Hare is said to make a good Dog. 1690Turn-Coat of Times iv. in Roxb. Ball. (1883) IV. 515, I can hold with the Hare, and run with The Hound: Which no body can deny. 1798Malthus Popul. (1817) III. 113 It would appear to be setting the tortoise to catch the hare. 1818Scott Let. to Croker 5 Feb. in Lockhart, The poor clergyman [got] nothing whatever, or, as we say, the hare's foot to lick. 1830W. Carleton Traits & Stories II. 111 What a hare Mat mad iv 'im;..and did not lave him a leg to stand upon. 1855Thackeray Rose & Ring xiv, ‘A soldier, Prince, must needs obey his orders: mine are..to seize wherever I should light upon him—’ ‘First catch your hare!..’ exclaimed his Royal Highness. 1858Times 25 Aug. 6/2 Bitter experience has taught us not to cook our hare before we have caught it. 1896Daily News 20 July 8/2 The familiar words, ‘First catch your hare’, were never to be found in Mrs. Glasse's famous volume. What she really said was, ‘Take your hare when it is cased’. 1938J. Cary Castle Corner x. 562 That fella thought he'd made a hare of me, but I knew one trick better.
3. fig. Applied to a person, in various allusive senses.
c1325Poem Times Edw. II, 252 in Pol. Poems (Camden) 334 Nu ben theih liouns in halle, and hares in the feld. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres vi. 7 At the very first charge..this hare in a Helmet fled out of the Field. 1729Swift Libel on Dr. Delany, etc. 53 Thus Gay, the hare with many friends, Twice seven long years the Court attends. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 490 The..distant blaze of those dull banquets made The nightly wirer of their innocent hare Falter before he took it.
b. He who lays the ‘scent’ (usually paper torn into fragments) which the ‘hounds’ follow in the sport hare and hounds (also called ‘paper-chase’; see paper chase s.v. paper n. 12): used lit. and fig.
a1845Hood To Mr. Malthus i, You're quite enough to play at hare and hounds. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. vii, Please, sir, we've been out Big-side Hare-and-Hounds, and lost our way. 1883W. H. Rideing in Harper's Mag. July 178/2 A flushed little ‘hare’ bounds past us, distributing the paper ‘scent’ in his course, and followed a quarter of an hour afterward by the panting and baffled ‘hounds’. 1920T. S. Eliot Sacred Wood 11 Coleridge is apt to take leave of the data of criticism, and arouse the suspicion that he has been diverted into a metaphysical hare-and-hounds. 1938Partridge World of Words ix. 261 Well worth the hare-and-hound chase through the dictionary. 1963Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 20/6 Throughout his speech he was constantly heckled and interrupted, but the scene cannot be described as ‘Hare and hounds’.
4. One of the southern constellations, Lepus.
1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 268 Vnder the feete of Orion, is there a constellation of 12 starres, named the Hare. a1701Creech Manilius v. ix. 61 The Hare appears, whose active Rays supply A nimble force. 1839Penny Cycl. XIII. 444/2 Lepus (the Hare), one of the old constellations, said by Hyginus to be in the act of running from Orion's dog.
5. = sea-hare, a molluscous animal, Aplysia depilans.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 89 Foot-less, and finnless (as the baneful Hare, And heat-full Oyster). 1601Holland Pliny II. 71 It represseth the poison of the venomous fish called the sea-Hare. 1847Carpenter Zool. §917 The Aplysia, commonly termed Sea-Hare..from the peculiar form of the superior pair of tentacula, which are flattened and hollowed like the ears of a quadruped.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib., as hare-back, hare-catcher, hare-chase, hare-drive, hare-flesh, hare-hunter, hare-park, hare-pie, hare-skin, hare-sleep, hare-soup.
b. objective or obj. gen., as hare-hunting, hare-shooting ns. and adjs.c. similative, as hare-like, hare-mad adjs.d. hare-coursing: see coursing vbl. n.1 2; hare-eyed, a., having eyes that look all round, or that are never closed: see sense 1, note; hare-hearted a., timid; † hare-hound, a dog for hunting hares; hare-kangaroo, a small kangaroo of the genus Lagorchestes, so called from its resemblance to a hare in size and colour; hare-pocket, a pocket in a shooting-coat, made of a size to hold a hare; hare's eye = lagophthalmia: see quot.; hare's fur Ceramics, a brown or black glaze streaked with silvery white or yellow used on some Chinese pottery; † hare-shaw = hare-lip; hare-sighted a., short-sighted; † hare-sleep, a very light sleep; † hare's-tooth (see quot.). Also hare-brain, -foot, etc.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 36 Some leather..wil straight-way become browne as a *hare backe.
1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 356 (Jod.) The vulture leporarius, or *hare-catcher.
1840D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rural Sports v. i. 562 The credit of the organisation of the sport of *hare coursing..[is] without all doubt the undisputed property of the English. 1972Times 5 Feb. 1/2 The House of Commons ended its Friday sitting in uproar and confusion when the Hare Coursing (Abolition) Bill was talked out.
1884T. Speedy Sport xiii. 216 A large bag of ptarmigan is not usually obtained in connection with a *hare-drive.
1611Tarlton Jests (1844) 12 To which he said little, but, with a squint eye, as custome had made him *hare eyed, hee looked for a jest to make them merry. 1612Chapman Death Pr. Henry D, Frantick Distemper & Hare-eyd vnrest.
1614Rowlands Fooles Bolt 33 Two right *Hare-harted coward Fooles.
1679T. Blount Anc. Tenures 42 With..two *Harehounds, or Greyhounds.
a1744Pope Let. M. & T. Blount (T.), I..then ride out a hunting..How can a..*hare-hunter hope for a minute's memory?
1735Somerville Chase ii. Argt., Description of the *Hare-hunting in all its Parts. 1864Sir S. Northcote Lect. & Ess. iii. (1887) 89 A hare-hunting farmer.
a1592H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 483 The *hare-like coward runs his ways.
1620Middleton Chaste Maid iii. ii, Here's a day of toil well pass'd over, Able to make a citizen *hare-mad.
1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1667) 100 The largest *Hare-Parks that ever I heard of, and the best furnished..are in Ireland.
1633*Hare-pie [see 2]. 1664–5Pepys Diary 23 Jan., Dined upon a hare pye. 1870Ouida Held in Bondage 21 Audit and hare-pie had not much temptation for us that morning.
1925G. Burrard Big Game Hunting 281 Two ‘*hare’ or ‘poacher’ pockets will be found most useful on occasions. 1950Q. Jrnl. Forestry XLIV. 60 The map should be made..to fit into the forester's hare pocket.
1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Eye, *Hare's Eye, Oculus Leporinus..a disease arising from a contraction of the upper eye-lid..so that the patient is obliged to sleepe with the eye half-open.
1899S. W. Bushell Oriental Ceramic Art xxvii. 724 The most highly appreciated ware at the tea-testing parties..was the dark⁓colored pottery of the province of Fuchien..the tea⁓bowls of which were known to Chinese virtuosos as ‘*hare's-fur bowls’. 1934Burlington Mag. May 214/1 Temmoku tea bowls with the ‘hare's fur’ glaze... They have a blackish stone-ware body, and a thick, lustrous black glaze streaked with hair lines of brown and silver. 1959G. Savage Antique Coll. Handbk. 52 The black glazed wares of Honan are of great interest, and tea-bowls with a variegated dark brown glaze, known as ‘hare's fur’, came from Chien-an in Fukien Province.
1597Lowe Chirurg. (1634) 185 The *Hare-shaw is a defectuositie of nature which happeneth..in the Lip, Eare or Nose..sometimes found cloven or they come in the world.
1627–77Feltham Resolves i. xxv. 45 'Tis indiscretion that is *Hare-sighted.
1719De Foe Crusoe i. xiv, A cap, which I had made of a *hare-skin. 1832Carlyle Remin. I. 36 Hare-skins would accumulate into the purchase money of a coat.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Hare-sleep, with Eies a'most open.
1804Scott Let. to Ellis 21 Aug. in Lockhart, *Hare soup may be forthcoming in due season.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 208 Whatsoever Beast be born in your flock, having that mark upon them, which is commonly called *Hares-tooth, never suffer them to suck their dam.
7. In names of plants: as † hare's-ballocks, popular name for species of Orchis; hare's-bane, Aconitum Lagoctonum; hare's-beard, the Great Mullein; † hare-bottle, Knapweed; hare's colewort, house, lettuce, palace, thistle (also hare-thistle), names for the Sow-thistle, Sonchusoleraceus; hare's-eye, the Red Campion, Lychnis diurna; hare's-meat, Wood-sorrel; hare-nut (dial.), the Earth- or Pig-nut; hare-parsley, Wild Chervil, Anthriscus sylvestris; hare's-tail (grass), a species of grass, Lagurus ovatus; hare's-tail rush, Single-headed Cotton-grass, Eriophorum vaginatum. Also hare-bell, etc.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 128 b, Whyt Satyrion..or in other more vnmanerly speche, *hares ballockes.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cclvi. §2. 630 Mullein is called..of some *Hares bearde.
1620Markham Farew. Husb. ii. viii. (1668) 40 The weeds which are most incident there-unto, are Twitch..besides Thistles, *Harebottles.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. xxxi. §8. 232 Sowthistle is called..of some Brassica leporina, or *Hares Colewoort.
Ibid. App., *Hares eie is Lychnis syluestris.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1656) 209 An herb called Lactuca Leporina..that is, Hares-lettice, *Hares-house, Hares palace. [c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 226 Se hara..mid þysse wyrte hyne sylfne ᵹelacnað, for þy heo ys lactuca leporina ᵹenemned.]
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. xxxi. §2. 229 The stalk of *hares lettuce or smooth Sowthistle, is oftentimes a cubite high.
1703Thoresby Let. to Ray (E.D.S.), *Hare-nut, [an] earthnut.
c1516Grete Herball cccli. T v/2 Palacium leporis, *hares palays, is an herbe lyke Spurge, but it hath longer and ryper leues..It is called hares palays. For yf the hare come vnder it, he is sure that no beest can touche hym.
1874Young Fancier's Guide 4 July (Britten & H.), There is a plant known as *hare parsley, of which rabbits are extremely fond. 1879Britten & Holland Plant-n., Hare Parsley, in Aubrey's Wilts..This [Anthriscus sylvestris] is no doubt the plant intended.
1806J. Galpine Brit. Bot. §41. 10 Lagurus ovatus, *hare's-tail-grass.
1597Gerarde Herbal 232 Apuleius calleth it [Sowthistle] Lactuca Leporina, or *Hares Thistle.
▪ II. † hare, v.1 Obs.
Also 7–8 hair.
[Origin not clear: in sense 1 app. allied to harry v.; sense 2 may have some association with hare n.]
1. trans. To harry; to worry; to harass.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccxv. 271 The other parte of the same company..sayd, howe they wolde se the pope and cardynalles..or els to hare and to pyll the countre. [Ibid. 272 So thus they haryed the pope, the cardynals, and the marchauntes about Auygnon.] 1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV (1809) 330 The Princes of Burgoyne had not been so plucked hared & spoyled of her faire townes & Castles as she was. 1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 110 Let the Hounds kill the Fox themselves, and worry and hare him as much as they please.
2. To frighten, to scare.
1659B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 153 Who..so staggered and hared him, that he could not make one word of answer. 1687R. L'Estrange Answ. Diss. 47 To Hair Them out of their Wits with Croking. 1692Locke Educ. §67 To hare and rate them thus at every turn, is not to teach them. 1721Strype Eccl. Mem. III. xiii. 122 Being but simple before, he was now haired out of his wits indeed. 1732Gay Distress'd Wife ii. Wks. (1772) 285 Your ladyship hares one so. 1750Chesterfield Lett. (1792) III. ccxli. 106 Little minds are in a hurry..they run, they hare, they puzzle, confound, and perplex themselves.
Hence hared, ˈharing ppl. adjs.
a1618Sylvester Job Triumph. i. 128 While Hee yet spake, there came Another in, Hared and hot. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hared, Hurried. 1755T. Amory J. Buncle (1825) I. 23 The multitude are thereby..rendered a hairing, staring, wrathful rabble.
▪ III. hare, v.2
[f. hare n.]
intr. †a. To double like a hare. b. To run or move with great speed. Also with it.
1893Farmer & Henley Slang, To hare it, to retrace one's steps; to double back. 1908D. Coke House Prefect xi. 141 He had heard..the order, ‘Hare’! Now ‘Hare’! is Seftonian for ‘Run—and run jolly quick’! a1914J. E. Raphael Mod. Rugby Football (1918) 262 Receiving the ball well inside his own half-way, Palmer commenced to ‘hare’ for the touch-line. 1917P. Gibbs Battles of Somme 173 There were other trenches ahead, and the men ‘hared’ off to these. 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xiv. 178, I..hared it rapidly to the spot. 1957Listener 19 Dec. 1046/1 The producer..can't go haring about collecting the items. 1958Woman 11 Jan. 47/1, I hared up to London, left my book with the publishers and went to my flat. 1963Times 13 June 5/1 Boulter took over by the backstraight and went haring away past 660 yards in 1 min. 21.1 sec.
▪ IV. hare
obs. f. haar, hair, haire, hoar.
▪ V. hare
obs. form of are (see be), ere.
▪ VI. hare
obs. form of air adv., before.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Laurentius 763 Rycht as þe feynd sad hyme hare. |