mare's nest
UK/ˈmɛːz nɛst/
mare's nest noun: a great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax.
Noun
mare's nest (plural mare's nests or mares' nests)
- A great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax.
- Near-synonyms: bullshit, horseshit
- Why dost thou laugh? What Mares nest hast thou found?c. 1620, John Fletcher (playwright), Bonduca, V.2
- A confused or complicated situation; a muddle.
- Though Chancellor Maupeou had supported the idea of a trial [...], the legal proceedings developed into a mare's nest of accusations and counter-accusations.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 277
- Synonyms:
- rat's nest
Synonyms of mare's nest
Forms of mare's nest
| plural | mare's nests |
|---|---|
| plural | mares' nests |
Origin of mare's nest
Alteration of earlier horse's nest, from the fanciful and unlikely notion that horses make nests.
Questions about mare's nest
- What does mare's nest mean?
- Mare's nest means a great discovery which turns out to be illusory; especially, a hoax.
- What part of speech is mare's nest?
- Mare's nest is a noun.
- How do you pronounce mare's nest?
- Mare's nest is pronounced /ˈmɛːz nɛst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mare's nest?
- The plural of mare's nest is mare's nests.
Words near mare's nest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mare's nest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-mare's nest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mare's nest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mare%27s_nest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.