starting a fresh hare

Verb

start a fresh hare (third-person singular simple present starts a fresh hare, present participle starting a fresh hare, simple past and past participle started a fresh hare)

1. (idiomatic) To divert a discussion or argument from its conclusion.
   • Like a huntsman who, for the sake of a better run, should outrace his quarry, or who, seeing that the dogs were close upon the hare, should, in order to prolong the chase, start a fresh hare, kept till then snug at his saddle-bow, so Hume, in the excitement of metaphysical pursuit, instead of...1873, William Thomas Thornton, Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics, page 156