Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various mammals of the family Leporidae, especially of the genus Lepus, similar to rabbits but having longer ears and legs and giving birth to active, furred young.
  • intransitive verb To move hurriedly, as if hunting a swift quarry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To harass; worry; frighten.
  • See he, I., D .
  • noun So many new species and subspecies of hares have been described of late years that common names have not kept pace with scientific names.
  • noun A rodent quadruped of the family Leporidæ and genus Lepus.
  • noun [capitalized] In astronomy, one of the forty-eight ancient constellations of Ptolemy, situated in the southern hemisphere.
  • noun Everybody; people generally.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To excite; to tease, harass, or worry; to harry.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A rodent of the genus Lepus, having long hind legs, a short tail, and a divided upper lip. It is a timid animal, moves swiftly by leaps, and is remarkable for its fecundity.
  • noun (Astron.) A small constellation situated south of and under the foot of Orion; Lepus.
  • noun a game played by men and boys, two, called hares, having a few minutes' start, and scattering bits of paper to indicate their course, being chased by the others, called the hounds, through a wide circuit.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small Australian kangaroo (Lagorchestes Leporoides), resembling the hare in size and color
  • noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Sonchus, or sow thistle; -- so called because hares are said to eat it when fainting with heat.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See under Jumping.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Chief hare.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See Aplysia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several plant-eating animals of the family Leporidae, especially of the genus Lepus, similar to a rabbit, but larger and with longer ears.
  • verb intransitive To move swiftly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun flesh of any of various rabbits or hares (wild or domesticated) eaten as food
  • 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
  • verb run quickly, like a hare

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English hara; see kas- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hare, from Old English hara ("hare"), from Proto-Germanic *hasô (compare West Frisian hazze, Dutch haas, German Hase, Swedish hare, Icelandic heri), from *Proto-Germanic *haswaz (“grey”) (compare Old English hasu, Middle High German heswe ("pale, dull")), from Proto-Indo-European *kas- (cf. Welsh cannu ("to whiten"), ceinach ("hare"), Latin cānus ("white"), cascus ("old"), Old Prussian sasins ("hare"), Pashto  (soe, "hare"), Sanskrit शश (śaśa, "hare")).

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Examples

  • All those pictures are beautiful, but he picture of the beagles and the hare is my favorite.

    The 50 Best Reader Shots of September 2009 2009

  • All those pictures are beautiful, but he picture of the beagles and the hare is my favorite.

    The 50 Best Reader Shots of September 2009 2009

  • And now I'm reading John Green's marvelous An Abundance of Katherines, and am pleased to have found another child for whom fables were not all that: "if only he'd known that the story of the tortoise and the hare is about more than a tortoise and a hare, he might have saved himself considerable trouble."

    Whither Jackie Paper? Roger Sutton 2006

  • And now I'm reading John Green's marvelous An Abundance of Katherines, and am pleased to have found another child for whom fables were not all that: "if only he'd known that the story of the tortoise and the hare is about more than a tortoise and a hare, he might have saved himself considerable trouble."

    Archive 2006-07-01 Roger Sutton 2006

  • OF all the animals in the forest the hare is the wisest, and the animals all know this.

    The King of the Snakes and Other Folk-Lore Stories From Uganda 1922

  • The tortoise and the hare is like you sitting watching a guy getting his butt kicked and hoping he's going to land a punch and win.

    Shane Mosley is seasoned, ready to battle with Mayweather 2010

  • The little hare is in her hands and she will take all the necessary care and advice.

    lievre - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • There does appear to be widespread acceptance of its specific status, however, even though there is some indication that the species hybridizes with the Mountain hare L. timidus (Melo-Ferreira et al. 2005).

    Archive 2006-10-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • There does appear to be widespread acceptance of its specific status, however, even though there is some indication that the species hybridizes with the Mountain hare L. timidus (Melo-Ferreira et al. 2005).

    The first new European mammal in 100 years? You must be joking Darren Naish 2006

  • * The correct species name for the Brown hare is controversial and the reality/monophyly of the Blue hare has recently been contested.

    Archive 2006-05-01 Darren Naish 2006

Comments

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  • Etymology links back to grey ...

    January 31, 2024

  • I'm kindly leaving space for y'all to make the grey hare jokes.

    January 31, 2024