to kiss the hare's foot
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To be too late for anything, to be a day after the fair. The hare has gone by, and left its footprint for you to salute. A similar phrase is To kiss the post.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to kiss the hare's foot” mean?
To be too late for anything, to be a day after the fair. The hare has gone by, and left its footprint for you to salute. A similar phrase is To kiss the post.
Is “to kiss the hare's foot” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.