mare's nest

noun

plural mare's nests or mares' nests

1

: a false discovery, illusion, or deliberate hoax

2

: a place, condition, or situation of great disorder or confusion

a mare's nest of intrigue and troubles with the money men

—William Cole

Synonyms

• hell
• havoc
• mess
• jumble
• chaos
• confusion
• snake pit
• disorder

Examples of mare's nest in a Sentence

the lack of planning had resulted in the city's evacuation being a mare's nest of epic proportions

Word History

First Known Use

1576, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for mare's nest

• acquiesced
• coalesced
• dispossessed
• manifest
• overdressed
• overstressed
• prepossessed
• reassessed
• reinvest
• repossessed
• unaddressed
• uncompressed