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You're most likely familiar with 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.
Synonyms
Verb
- barrel
- belt
- blast
- blaze
- blow
- bolt
- bomb [slang]
- bowl
- breeze
- bundle
- bustle
- buzz
- cannonball
- careen
- career
- chase
- course
- crack (on)
- dash
- drive
- fly
- hasten
- hie
- highball
- hotfoot (it)
- hump
- hurl
- hurry
- hurtle
- hustle
- jet
- jump
- motor
- nip
- pelt
- race
- ram
- rip
- rocket
- run
- rush
- rustle
- scoot
- scurry
- scuttle
- shoot
- speed
- step
- tear
- travel
- trot
- whirl
- whisk
- zip
- zoom
Examples of hare in a Sentence
Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post, 5 Nov. 2024
Newsweek previously reported that this breed has historically been used for hunting hares in the Spanish countryside.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
Jackie Burrell, The Mercury News, 23 June 2024
Why hare off to nurse in the Spanish-American War?
—Denise Davidson Writer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2021
See all Example Sentences for hare 
Dictionary Entries Near hare
Cite this Entry
“Hare.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hare. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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