Oxford Dictionary English

    mare

    noun
    noun
    BrE BrE//meə(r)//
    ; NAmE NAmE//mer//
    Farm animals, Equine sports
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  1. 1a female horse or donkey compare brood mare, filly, stallion See related entries: Farm animals, Equine sports
  2. 2(British English) (informal) = nightmare (2) The journey home was a bit of a mare as all of the trains were delayed. I had a complete mare booking tickets for the concert. See related entries: Farm animals
    3.  Word Originnoun Old English mearh ‘horse’, mere ‘mare’, from a Germanic base with cognates in Celtic languages meaning ‘stallion’. The sense ‘male horse’ died out at the end of the Middle English period.Idioms
      a mare’s nest
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    1. 1a discovery that seems interesting but is found to have no value See related entries: Farm animals
    2. 2a very complicated situation This area of the law is a veritable mare’s nest. See related entries: Farm animals
See mare in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
Check pronunciation: mare
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