mare's-nest
Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- noun A supposed discovery which turns out to be a hoax; something grossly absurd.
- noun A confused multitude of things.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- verb To discover mare's nests; make absurd discoveries; imagine that one has made an important discovery which is really no discovery at all, or is a hoax.
Examples
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Generalizations are commonly unsafe in proportion as they are tempting; and this, together with its pretty twin-brother about Cavaliers and Roundheads, would seem to have been hatched from the same egg and in the same mare's-nest.
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But I don't suppose the denial had the smallest effect upon Mr. KING, who probably went off and dined heartily on a magnum of mare's-nest soup.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, November 28, 1917
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There was Doctor Wells, the local physician, who had joked with her about moving into the Bat's home territory -- He seemed an intelligent man -- but she knew him only slightly -- she couldn't call a busy Doctor away from his patients to investigate something which might only prove to be a mare's-nest.
Note
This term is from the 16th century and comes from the phrase 'to have found (also spied) a mare's nest,' according to the OED, or 'to imagine that one has discovered something wonderful, which in fact does not exist.'
