Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense hares, present participle haring, past tense, past participle hared
1. variable noun
A hare is an animal like a rabbit but larger with long ears, long legs, and a small tail.
Hare is the flesh of this animal eaten as food.
2. verb
If you hareoff somewhere, you go there very quickly.
[British, informal]
...an over-protective mother who keeps haring off to ring the babysitter. [VERB adverb/preposition]
hare in British English
(hɛə)
nounWord forms: pluralhares or hare
1.
any solitary leporid mammal of the genus Lepus, such as L. europaeus (European hare). Hares are larger than rabbits, having longer ears and legs, and live in shallow nests (forms)
▶ Related adjective: leporine
2. make a hare of someone
3. run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
verb
4. (intr; often foll by off, after, etc) British informal
to go or run fast or wildly
Derived forms
harelike (ˈhareˌlike)
adjective
Word origin
Old English hara; related to Old Norse heri, Old High German haso, Swedish hare, Sanskrit śaśá
Hare in British English1
(hɛə)
noun
1.
Sir David. born 1947, British dramatist and theatre director: his plays include Plenty (1978), Pravda (with Howard Brenton, 1985), The Secret Rapture (1989), Racing Demon (1990), The Permanent Way (2003), and Stuff Happens (2004)
2.
William. 19th century, Irish murderer and bodysnatcher: associate of William Burke
Hare in British English2
(hɛə)
noun
a member of a Dene Native Canadian people of northern Canada
Word origin
of Athapascan origin
hare in American English
(hɛr; hær)
nounWord forms: pluralhares or hare
1.
any of a large group of swift mammals (order Lagomorpha) of the same family (Leporidae) as the rabbits, with longears, soft fur, a cleft upper lip, a short tail, and long, powerful hind legs: it differs from a rabbit in that it is larger, does not burrow, and has furry, active young
verb intransitiveWord forms: hared or ˈharing
2. British, Informal
to run fast or go hurriedly
with off, away, about, etc.
Word origin
ME < OE hara, akin to Ger hase < IE *as-, gray (hence, lit., the gray animal, euphemism for a taboo name) > L canus, hoary
On the stone of the drive outside my window sat a huge brown hare.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
You can set the hare running on that.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
You remember the story of the hare and the tortoise?
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
We run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
Christianity Today (2000)
The hare and the tortoise spring to mind.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
My only tip would be to remember the tortoise and the hare.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The rest included poaching of game birds, hare coursing and badger baiting.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
There's no close season for the brown hare.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
It is the first time protesters have successfully used the Act against a hare hunt.
The Sun (2009)
The brown hare is the one we find in drier parts, often in the arable landscape.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
It's a bit like the tortoise and the hare.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
But watch out for the man who might play tortoise to the hare that is Hales.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
I could kick with either foot and run like a hare.
Max Arthur Lost Voices of the Edwardians: 19011910 in the words of the Men & Women Who WereThere (2006)
The brown hare is larger than the mountain hare, and opinions divide as to which is the best.
Smith, Drew Food Watch (1994)
Presumably their mother had pulled the fur from her own coat to keep them warm, but was she a rabbit or a hare?
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
The Scots mountain hare is smaller than its lowland cousin and it's not often cooked commercially.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
My wife is not here today and the reason she is not here today is because I detest hare coursing.
The Sun (2013)
They are also found in much of Ireland, where the brown hare is hardly known.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Britain's only indigenous hare, the animals grow a white coat in winter to improve their camouflage in the snow.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Word lists with
hare
related adjectives, male animals, female animals, baby and young animals, rabbit
In other languages
hare
British English: hare /hɛə/ NOUN
A hare is an animal like a large rabbit, but with longer ears and legs.
American English: hare
Arabic: أَرْنَبٌ بَرِّيَّة
Brazilian Portuguese: lebre
Chinese: 野兔
Croatian: zec
Czech: zajíc
Danish: hare
Dutch: haas
European Spanish: liebre
Finnish: jänis
French: lièvre
German: Hase
Greek: λαγός
Italian: lepre
Japanese: 野ウサギ
Korean: 산토끼
Norwegian: hare
Polish: zając
European Portuguese: lebre
Romanian: iepure de câmp
Russian: заяц
Latin American Spanish: liebre
Swedish: hare
Thai: กระต่ายป่า
Turkish: yabani tavşan
Ukrainian: заєць
Vietnamese: thỏ rừng
All related terms of 'hare'
sea hare
any of various marine gastropods of the order Aplysiomorpha (or Anaspidea ), esp Aplysia punctata, having a soft body with an internal shell and two pairs of earlike tentacles
arctic hare
a large hare , Lepus arcticus, of the Canadian Arctic whose fur is white in winter
jugged hare
a stew of hare cooked in an earthenware pot or casserole
March hare
a hare during its breeding season in March , noted for its wild and excitable behaviour (esp in the phrase mad as a March hare )
Belgian hare
a large red breed of domestic rabbit
electric hare
(in greyhound racing) a model of a hare , mounted on an electrified rail , which the dogs chase
hare-brained
You use hare-brained to describe a scheme or theory which you consider to be very foolish and which you think is unlikely to be successful or true .
Hare Krishna
a Hindu sect devoted to a form of Hinduism ( Krishna Consciousness ) based on the worship of the god Krishna
hare wallaby
a wallaby of the genus Lagorchestes
snowshoe hare
a N North American hare , Lepus americanus, having brown fur in summer , white fur in winter , and heavily furred feet
varying hare
→ snowshoe hare
hare's-foot
a leguminous annual plant, Trifolium arvense, that grows on sandy soils in Europe and NW Asia and has downy heads of white or pink flowers
start a hare
to introduce a new idea or topic which other people become interested in
hare and hounds
a game in which certain players ( hares ) run across country scattering pieces of paper that the other players ( hounds ) follow in an attempt to catch the hares
hare's-foot clover
a leguminous annual plant, Trifolium arvense, that grows on sandy soils in Europe and NW Asia and has downy heads of white or pink flowers
make a hare of someone
to defeat someone completely
run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
to try to support both sides in an argument or conflict , in order to make your own life easier