mare

CEFRB1

/mɛə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An adult female horse.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A foolish woman.

Examples

  • I cannot moo like a cow. I'm a mare!

  • Some good-for-nothing at this gutter paper here spread this mare's nest.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈmɑɹ.eɪ/
  • /ˈmɛɚ.i/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A type of evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; also, the feeling of suffocation felt during sleep, attributed to such a spirit.

  2. A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.

  3. A large, dark plain, which may have the appearance of a sea, such as those on the Moon.

More examples

In context

  • The prancing chestnut mare neighed as she tried to get rid of the rider.

  • Kraken Mare (a lake of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan which is slightly larger than the Caspian Sea)

  • I'm having a complete mare today.

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The farmer led the gentle blank into the stable for the night after a long day.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English mare, meare, meir, mer, mere, meyre, mure, from Old English mīere (“female horse, mare”), from Proto-West Germanic *marhijā, from Proto-Germanic *marhijō (“female horse”), from *marhaz (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *márkos (“horse”). Cognates Cognate with Scots mere (“mare”), Saterland Frisian Märe (“mare”), West Frisian merje (“mare”), Dutch merrie (“mare”), German Mähre (“female horse”), Danish mær (“old mare”), Faroese mer (“mare”), Icelandic meri (“mare”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk merr (“mare”), Swedish mæhr, mær, mähr, märr (“mare”); also Breton marc'h (“horse”), Cornish margh (“horse”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic marc (“horse”), Welsh march (“hor...