hare

play

noun \ ˈher \

Definition of hare

plural hare or hares

:any of various swift, gnawing, herbivorous, usually shy lagomorph mammals (family Leporidae and especially genus Lepus) that have long ears, short tails, and powerful long hind legs, are usually solitary or sometimes live in pairs, have the young open-eyed and furred at birth, and live in aboveground nests — compare rabbit 1a

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hare was our Word of the Day on 09/14/2016. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of hare from the Web

Wes hare one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.

— alana abramson, Time, "'I Can Be More Presidential Than Any President.' Read Trump's Ohio Rally Speech," 26 July 2017
As the rest of the West sprints up and down the floor, Utah will be content as the tortoise to the conference’s hare.

— michael shapiro, SI.com, "The Great Migration: West Playoff Picture as Muddled as Ever," 21 July 2017
And in a world where cars drive themselves, a tortoise beating a hare doesn’t seem all that farfetched.

— michal lev-ram, Fortune, "How Lyft Could Defeat Uber," 19 July 2017
Just about everyone who has ever read a children's book knows the fable of the tortoise and the hare.

— michal lev-ram, Fortune, "How Lyft Could Defeat Uber," 19 July 2017
Costco executives have acknowledged the company is a tortoise, not a hare, in the online arena, and that its focus is still on getting customers into its brick-and-mortar stores.

— the seattle times, OregonLive.com, "Amazon's move into groceries could squeeze Costco," 21 June 2017
Stoats were introduced in the 1880s to help control rabbits and hares.

— joseph dussault, The Christian Science Monitor, "Kiwis take front line in global war against invasive species," 12 June 2017
Most of the animal bones come from gazelles, but there were also the cut and broken bones of hartebeests, wildebeests, zebras, buffalos, porcupines, hares, tortoises, freshwater mollusks, snakes and ostrich eggs.

— bill lindelof, sacbee.com, "Gazelle with occasional ostrich egg on menu for earliest humans, says UC Davis researcher," 7 June 2017
Saturday Day to Donate: Residents have a chance to support several local nonprofit organizations by making donations vis the $hare mobile app on a smartphone on Saturday, June 10.

— michelle mullins, Naperville Sun, "This Week in Naperville," 6 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hare.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of hare

Middle English, from Old English hara; akin to Old High German haso hare, Sanskrit śaśa, Old English hasu gray

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

See Words from the same year

Other Mammals Terms

dormouse, dugong, gibbon, grimalkin, sable, stoat, ungulate, vole

hare

verb

Definition of hare

hared; haring

intransitive verb

:to go swiftly :¹tear

hare off down the road

See hare defined for English-language learners

Examples of hare in a Sentence

He came haring round the corner at top speed.
she's always haring off to attend to some emergency

Did You Know?

No doubt you've heard Aesop's fable about the speedy hare and the plodding tortoise. The hare may have lost that race due to a tactical error (stopping to take a nap before reaching the finish line), but the long-eared mammal's overall reputation for swiftness remains intact. It's no surprise, then, that hare is used as a verb meaning "to move quickly." The noun hare (which refers, in its most specific zoological sense, to a member of the genus Lepus, whose young are usually able to hop a few minutes after birth) is a very old word. It first appeared as hara in a Latin-Old English glossary around the year 700. The verb was in use by the end of the 19th century, and people have been "haring off" and "haring about" ever since.