Meaning of mara | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
   European
2. A type of god that prevents accomplishment or success.
3. Any caviid rodent of the genus Dolichotis, common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.
4. A Latin American criminal gang.
   US
5. A Maran Australian Aboriginal prefixing language spoken in southeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
6. A female given name from Hebrew.
   rare
7. A surname from Irish.
8. The Hindu god of death; opposite of Kama.
   Hinduism
9. The Slavic goddess of winter and death; Marena or Marzanna.
10. A member of a predominantly agricultural tribe of southern Assam and western Burma.
11. A river in Tanzania and Kenya.
12. Any malicious or evil spirit.
13. The Buddhist demon who tempts people away from enlightenment

Equivalents

Examples

“The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara.”

“Mara means demon, or demonic influence, that hinders the practice of virtue. It may be an external spirit or an aspect of our own imperfect condition. All hindrances on the path to liberation are subsumed under the four maras. The first mara is the mara of the aggregates.[…]The second of the maras is the mara of the afflictions, which are the same as the afflictive obstructions. They are identified as a mara because they precipitate all harmful actions, from malicious gossip to murder.[…]The third mara is Devaputra, literally "son of a god," an external troublemaker who specializes in interfering with beings who are endeavoring to achieve something positive.[…]The last mara is the mara of death.”

“The mara is the spirit that causes illness, accidents, and mishaps. The only protection against it is another mara who befriends a person or a group. A mara who becomes friendly is called a gunik. This transformation occurs when a mara comes to a person in a dream and states a desire to be friendly. But there are deceitful maras who pretend to be friendly, yet will betray the person who trusts them.”

“Maras have a white patch of fur on the rump that they flash when running, an adaptation they share with several species of deer and antelopes.”

“Although only Dolichotis, the Patagonian mara, is strongly cursorial, all caviids have certain features typical of cursorial mammals[…].”

“Maras (Dolichotis patagonum) are cursorial and prefer open areas with low vegetation for breeding and more barren sites for construction of communal dens (Taber and Macdonald 1992; Baldi 2007).”

“Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”

“In the dry season, when the Mara becomes narrower and shallower, certain stretches of it become especially thick with hippos—and their dung.”

CEFR level