mare
part of speech
noun (a mare, mares; mare – Latin «sea», plural «maria»)
meaning for a pupil
1) A female horse, donkey or zebra, especially an adult one. tree →
2) (astronomy) A large, dark, flat area on the Moon, once thought to be a sea; plural «maria». tree →
3) (UK slang, from «nightmare») A terrible or annoying situation: «It was a right mare getting here». tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and farm topics, a mare is a female horse; a male is a stallion, and a baby is a foal. In astronomy, the dark patches on the Moon are «maria», like the Sea of Tranquillity (Mare Tranquillitatis), where Apollo 11 landed. In UK slang, «a mare» or «a nightmare» is a really bad time. Phrases: «a mare and her foal», «having a mare» (UK slang: doing very badly).
examples
- The mare stood in the field with her new foal. tree →
- A female horse is called a mare. tree →
- Apollo 11 landed in a mare called the Sea of Tranquillity. tree →
- The dark patches on the Moon are called maria. tree →
- (slang, UK) The traffic was a total mare this morning. tree →
- (slang, UK) Our goalie had a mare and let in five goals. tree →
- The farmer has three mares and one stallion. tree →
- The grey mare jumped the fence easily. tree →
- Why, this is no horse, but a mare. tree →
note
Countable: one mare, two mares. The Moon sense is pronounced «MAH-ray», plural «maria». Do not confuse with «mayor» (a town leader, sounds the same in some accents) or «mere». The slang «mare» is short for «nightmare» – informal, not for writing tests.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mare» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.