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hare
hold with the hare and run with the hounds
1. To support or attempt to placate both sides of a conflict or dispute. Many have criticized the US government of holding with the hare and running with the hound regarding the territorial dispute between the two nations.
2. To act duplicitously or hypocritically; to speak or act out against something while engaging or taking part in it. How can you be taken seriously as an anti-drug reformer when extensive documents reveal that you are a frequent user of methamphetamine? You can't hold with the hare and run with the hound, Senator.
you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
When two parties are in conflict, you can't support both of them—you must choose one. Come on, you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds—pick a side! You're either in favor of renovating the library, or you're not.
be as mad as a March hare
To be crazy. The phrase alludes to hares' erratic behavior during their breeding season. Mom was as mad as a March hare after I dented her brand-new car.
First catch your hare.
Prov. Do not make plans about what you will do when you have something until you actually have it. Fred: When I buy my house on the beach, you can spend summers with me there. Ellen: First catch your hare.
If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.
Prov. You cannot do two things successfully at the same time. Vanessa: If I want to pursue my acting career, I'll have to take more days off to go to auditions. But I want to get ahead in the office, too. Jane: If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.
*mad as a hatter
and *mad as a march hare 1. crazy. (Alludes to the crazy characters in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. *Also: as ~.) Poor old John is as mad as a hatter. All these screaming children are driving me mad as a hatter.
2. angry. (This is a misunderstanding of mad in the first sense. *Also: as ~.) You make me so angry! I'm as mad as a hatter. John can't control his temper. He's always mad as a hatter.
run with someone or something
to stay in the company of someone or some group. Fred was out running with Larry when they met Vernon. Let's go out and run with the other guys this morning.
run with something
1. Lit. to run, showing a particular characteristic. Sally runs with speed and grace. Fred runs with tremendous speed.
2. Fig. to take over something and handle it aggressively and independently. I know that Alice can handle the job. She will take it on and run with it. I hope she runs with this next project.
run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
Fig. to support both sides of a dispute. In our office politics, Sally always tries to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, telling both the clerical workers and the management that she thinks they should prevail.
mad as a hatter
Also, mad as a March hare. Crazy, demented, as in She is throwing out all his clothes; she's mad as a hatter. This expression, dating from the early 1800s, alludes to exposure to the chemicals formerly used in making felt hats, which caused tremors and other nervous symptoms. The variant, dating from the 14th century, alludes to the crazy behavior of hares during rutting season, mistakenly thought to be only in March.
run with
1. Also,
run around with. Socialize with; see
run around, def. 2.
2. Take as one's own, adopt; also, carry out enthusiastically. For example, He wanted to run with the idea and go public immediately.
3. run with the hare, hunt with the hounds. Support two opposing sides at the same time, as in He wants to increase the magazine's circulation along with its price-that's trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds . This expression, alluding to being both hunter and hunted at the same time, dates from the 1400s and was already a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 collection.
run with
v.1. To accompany and participate in the activities of someone or something: Those teenagers run with a wild crowd.
2. To float or sail in the same direction as something:The sailboat ran with the wind all the way to the beach. On the trip back, we can run with the current, and we won't have to paddle the canoe.
3. To adopt something or take something as one's own and then proceed with it: I took their idea for a novel and ran with it.
mad as a hatter
Crazy. The standard explanation comes from the effect to the brain caused by mercury nitrate used by 18th- and 19th-century hatmakers. Another view holds that “mad” originally meant “poisonous” and “hatter” is a corruption of the Saxon word “atter,” the adder snake, the bite of which affects the brain. In any event, the Mad Hatter character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is a testimony to eccentricity bordering on madness.
mad as a March hare
Crazy. According to folklore, hares behave as though they're “sparring” with other hares and leaping around for no discernible reason during their breeding season. Their breeding season in Europe begins during the month of March.