"mare's nest" meaning in All languages combined

See mare's nest on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈmɛːz nɛst/ [UK] Audio: en-au-mare's nest.ogg Forms: mare's nests [plural], mares' nests [plural]
Etymology: Alteration of earlier horse's nest, from the fanciful and unlikely notion that horses make nests. Head templates: {{en-noun|s|mares' nests}} mare's nest (plural mare's nests or mares' nests), {{tlb|en|figurative}} (figurative)
  1. A great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-mare's_nest-en-noun-en:illusory_discovery__especially__a_hoax Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 70 30 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 81 19
  2. A confused or complicated situation; a muddle. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: rat's nest Related terms: blinker fluid, muffler bearing, fool's gold, hen's tooth, rocking horse shit, snark
    Sense id: en-mare's_nest-en-noun-en:complicated_mess

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Alteration of earlier horse's nest, from the fanciful and unlikely notion that horses make nests.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mare's nests",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mares' nests",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "2": "mares' nests"
      },
      "expansion": "mare's nest (plural mare's nests or mares' nests)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "figurative"
      },
      "expansion": "(figurative)",
      "name": "tlb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "70 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "80 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "81 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: bullshit, horseshit"
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1620, John Fletcher (playwright), Bonduca, V.2",
          "text": "Why dost thou laugh? What Mares nest hast thou found?"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 32:",
          "text": "“Rubbish!” cried Lawrence angrily. “In my opinion the whole thing is a mare’s nest of Bauerstein’s! Wilkins hadn’t an idea of such a thing, until Bauerstein put it into his head. But, like all specialists, Bauerstein’s got a bee in his bonnet. Poisons are his hobby, so of course he sees them everywhere.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax."
      ],
      "id": "en-mare's_nest-en-noun-en:illusory_discovery__especially__a_hoax",
      "links": [
        [
          "illusory",
          "illusory"
        ],
        [
          "hoax",
          "hoax"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:illusory discovery, especially, a hoax"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: boar's nest"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              106,
              117
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 277:",
          "text": "Though Chancellor Maupeou had supported the idea of a trial [...], the legal proceedings developed into a mare's nest of accusations and counter-accusations.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A confused or complicated situation; a muddle."
      ],
      "id": "en-mare's_nest-en-noun-en:complicated_mess",
      "links": [
        [
          "confused",
          "confused"
        ],
        [
          "complicated",
          "complicated"
        ],
        [
          "muddle",
          "muddle"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "blinker fluid"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "muffler bearing"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "fool's gold"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "hen's tooth"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "rocking horse shit"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "30 70",
          "word": "snark"
        }
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:complicated mess"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rat's nest"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmɛːz nɛst/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-mare's nest.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "mare's nest"
  ],
  "word": "mare's nest"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Alteration of earlier horse's nest, from the fanciful and unlikely notion that horses make nests.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mare's nests",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mares' nests",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "2": "mares' nests"
      },
      "expansion": "mare's nest (plural mare's nests or mares' nests)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "figurative"
      },
      "expansion": "(figurative)",
      "name": "tlb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "blinker fluid"
    },
    {
      "word": "muffler bearing"
    },
    {
      "word": "fool's gold"
    },
    {
      "word": "hen's tooth"
    },
    {
      "word": "rocking horse shit"
    },
    {
      "word": "snark"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: bullshit, horseshit"
        },
        {
          "ref": "c. 1620, John Fletcher (playwright), Bonduca, V.2",
          "text": "Why dost thou laugh? What Mares nest hast thou found?"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 32:",
          "text": "“Rubbish!” cried Lawrence angrily. “In my opinion the whole thing is a mare’s nest of Bauerstein’s! Wilkins hadn’t an idea of such a thing, until Bauerstein put it into his head. But, like all specialists, Bauerstein’s got a bee in his bonnet. Poisons are his hobby, so of course he sees them everywhere.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "illusory",
          "illusory"
        ],
        [
          "hoax",
          "hoax"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:illusory discovery, especially, a hoax"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: boar's nest"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              106,
              117
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 277:",
          "text": "Though Chancellor Maupeou had supported the idea of a trial [...], the legal proceedings developed into a mare's nest of accusations and counter-accusations.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A confused or complicated situation; a muddle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "confused",
          "confused"
        ],
        [
          "complicated",
          "complicated"
        ],
        [
          "muddle",
          "muddle"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:complicated mess"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rat's nest"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmɛːz nɛst/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-mare's nest.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-au-mare%27s_nest.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "mare's nest"
  ],
  "word": "mare's nest"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (142890b and 1d3fdbf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.