See mare's nest on Wiktionary
{
"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"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "70 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "78 22",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "80 20",
"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?"
}
],
"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"
},
{
"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": "19 81",
"word": "blinker fluid"
},
{
"_dis1": "19 81",
"word": "muffler bearing"
},
{
"_dis1": "19 81",
"word": "fool's gold"
},
{
"_dis1": "19 81",
"word": "hen's tooth"
},
{
"_dis1": "19 81",
"word": "rocking horse shit"
},
{
"_dis1": "19 81",
"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"
}
],
"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": [
{
"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?"
}
],
"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"
},
{
"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"
}
Download raw JSONL data for mare's nest meaning in All languages combined (2.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (d6bf104 and a5af179). 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.