subs. (common).—A supposed discovery; a hoax; a delusion. Also TO FIND A MARE’S NEST AND LAUGH AT THE EGGS.
1647. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, Bonduca, v. 2. Why dost thou laugh? What MARE’S NEST hast thou found?
1764. O’HARA, Midas, i. 3. Hey-day! What MARE’S NEST’S found?
1767. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 56]. s.v.
1785 and 1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1st and 3rd eds.), s.v. MARE’S NEST. He has found a MARE’S NEST, and is laughing at the eggs; said of one who laughs without any apparent cause.
1859. LEVER, Davenport Dunn, i. 206. He’s always MARE’S NESTING.
1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv. 105, ‘A Cumberland MARE’S NEST.’
| In short, you Lorton wiseacres, on coming to examine it, | |
| Have found a regular MARE’S-NEST, and ’stead of eggs, a lamb in it! |
1864. The Spectator, p. 355. It would not do for Englishmen to be ticketted as Englishmen all over the Continent, for they are recognised easily enough by that dialect of French which Mr. Kinglake once called Continental English—he has exchanged mots since then for MARES’ NESTS.
1870. J. R. LOWELL, Among My Books, 1st Ser., p. 292. It [the average German mind] finds its keenest pleasure in divining a profound significance in the most trifling things, and the number of MARE’S NESTS that have been stared into … passes calculation.
1873. Notes and Queries, 4 S. XII. 136. Each, in his endeavour to correct me, actually justifies my doubt, and their united criticisms prove that the stumbling-block which I have found, be it what it may, is not a MARE’S NEST.
1883. PAYN, Thicker than Water, ch. xlvii. ‘Dr. Bilde and the rest discovered something wrong and hoped for the worst, whereas they’ve only found a MARE’S NEST.’
THE MARE WITH THREE LEGS, subs. phr. (old).—The gallows; THE TRIPLE TREE (q.v.).
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, The Game of High Toby [Rookwood]. For the MARE-WITH-THREE-LEGS, boys, I care not a rap.
