See red herring on Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "(figurative): One possible origin of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This was true, but the modern meaning of a false trail may have been popularized in a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon. The OED has another possible earlier origin in the legacy of clergyman Jasper Mayne in 1672 when he misled a servant by leaving him \"Somewhat that would make him Drink after his Death\" in a large trunk. When the trunk was opened, the contents were found to be red herring.\n(soldier): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; soldier is, reciprocally, a slang term for the fish.",
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"word": "neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring"
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"text": "Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before.",
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"text": "‘Mamma,’ said Rosamond, ‘when Fred comes down I wish you would not let him have red herrings. I cannot bear the smell of them all over the house at this hour of the morning.’",
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"ref": "2019 June 8, Kitty Empire, “Madonna: Madame X review – a splendidly bizarre return to form”, in The Guardian, London:",
"text": "Colombia is a red herring, however. The songs that became Madame X actually came together during Madonna’s two years in Portugal, where she decamped in 2017 when her son David enrolled in Benfica’s football academy.",
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"roman": "pušena heringa",
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"word": "bokking"
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{
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"roman": "kapnistí rénga",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
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"word": "καπνιστή ρέγγα"
},
{
"_dis1": "43 3 54 0",
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"word": "füstölt hering"
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"word": "aringa affumicata"
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"_dis1": "43 3 54 0",
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"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "arenque defumado"
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"roman": "kopčónaja seljódka",
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"word": "копчёная селёдка"
},
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"ref": "1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 208:",
"text": "“Devil a bit, Ma’am,” said the Major. “We couldn’t afford it. Unless the world was peopled with J.B.’s—tough and blunt old Joes, Ma’am, plain red herrings with hard roes, Sir—we couldn’t afford it. It wouldn’t do.”",
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"etymology_text": "(figurative): One possible origin of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This was true, but the modern meaning of a false trail may have been popularized in a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon. The OED has another possible earlier origin in the legacy of clergyman Jasper Mayne in 1672 when he misled a servant by leaving him \"Somewhat that would make him Drink after his Death\" in a large trunk. When the trunk was opened, the contents were found to be red herring.\n(soldier): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; soldier is, reciprocally, a slang term for the fish.",
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"word": "neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring"
},
{
"word": "lead by the nose"
},
{
"word": "lead someone down the garden path"
},
{
"word": "MacGuffin"
},
{
"word": "misdirection"
},
{
"word": "wild-goose chase"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1660 March 9 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 28th, 1659–1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 74:",
"text": "Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 11, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 170:",
"text": "‘Mamma,’ said Rosamond, ‘when Fred comes down I wish you would not let him have red herrings. I cannot bear the smell of them all over the house at this hour of the morning.’",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A herring that is cured in smoke and brine strong enough to turn the flesh red; a typeof kipper."
],
"links": [
[
"herring",
"herring"
],
[
"cure",
"cure"
],
[
"smoke",
"smoke"
],
[
"brine",
"brine"
],
[
"strong",
"strong"
],
[
"flesh",
"flesh"
],
[
"red",
"red"
],
[
"type",
"type"
],
[
"kipper",
"kipper"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1997, David Foster Wallace, “David Lynch keeps his head”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:",
"text": "By its thirtieth episode, the show [Twin Peaks] had degenerated into tics and shticks and mannerisms and red herrings, and part of the explanation for this was that [David] Lynch was trying to divert our attention from the fact that he really had no idea how to wrap the central murder case up.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 March 1, Elizabeth Peters, Children of the Storm (Amelia Peabody), Hachette UK, →ISBN, →OCLC:",
"text": "I will, of course, turn my analytical talents to bear on the identity of the imitation Hathor, but in my opinion she is only a red herring – a nuisance, a distraction.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2019 June 8, Kitty Empire, “Madonna: Madame X review – a splendidly bizarre return to form”, in The Guardian, London:",
"text": "Colombia is a red herring, however. The songs that became Madame X actually came together during Madonna’s two years in Portugal, where she decamped in 2017 when her son David enrolled in Benfica’s football academy.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A clue, information, argument, etc. that is or is intended to be misleading, diverting attention from the real answer or issue."
],
"links": [
[
"clue",
"clue"
],
[
"information",
"information"
],
[
"argument",
"argument"
],
[
"intended",
"intended"
],
[
"misleading",
"misleading"
],
[
"divert",
"divert"
],
[
"attention",
"attention"
],
[
"real",
"real"
],
[
"answer",
"answer"
],
[
"issue",
"issue"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) A clue, information, argument, etc. that is or is intended to be misleading, diverting attention from the real answer or issue."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "decoy"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"en:Finance"
],
"glosses": [
"A red herring prospectus."
],
"links": [
[
"finance",
"finance#Noun"
],
[
"red herring prospectus",
"red herring prospectus"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(finance) A red herring prospectus."
],
"topics": [
"business",
"finance"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English slang",
"English terms with archaic senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 208:",
"text": "“Devil a bit, Ma’am,” said the Major. “We couldn’t afford it. Unless the world was peopled with J.B.’s—tough and blunt old Joes, Ma’am, plain red herrings with hard roes, Sir—we couldn’t afford it. It wouldn’t do.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A soldier."
],
"links": [
[
"soldier",
"soldier"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, archaic) A soldier."
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"slang"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "pušena heringa",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "пушена херинга"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "gerookte haring"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "bokking"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "savusilli"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "hareng saur"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Bückling"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "kapnistí rénga",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "καπνιστή ρέγγα"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "füstölt hering"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "füstölt hering"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "aringa affumicata"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"word": "arenque defumado"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "arenque fumado"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "kopčónaja seljódka",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "копчёная селёдка"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "arenque ahumado"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "smoke-cured herring",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "böckling"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "ulóvka",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "уло́вка"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "煙幕彈"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "yānmùdàn",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "烟幕弹"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "falsk spor"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "vals spoor"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "afleidingsmanoeuvre"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "harhautus"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "hämäys"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "diversion"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "leurre"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "hareng rouge"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "fausse piste"
},
{
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "saṭq̇uara",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "სატყუარა"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "falsche Fährte"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"figuratively"
],
"word": "Nebelkerze"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"general"
],
"word": "Ablenkung"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "paraplánisi",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "παραπλάνηση"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "antiperispasmós",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "αντιπερισπασμός"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "hamis/félrevezető nyom"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "félrevezetés"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "falsa pista"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"masculine"
],
"word": "specchietto per le allodole"
},
{
"code": "no",
"lang": "Norwegian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "blindspor"
},
{
"code": "no",
"lang": "Norwegian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "feilspor"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "fałszywy trop"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"colloquial",
"feminine"
],
"word": "podpucha"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "pista falsa"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "cortina de fumaça"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "diversiune"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"english": "false track",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "lóžnyj sled",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ло́жный след"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "zagovarivanije zubov",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "заговаривание зубов"
},
{
"code": "sk",
"lang": "Slovak",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"word": "falošná stopa"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "misleading clue",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "pista falsa"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Michael Quinion"
],
"word": "red herring"
}
Download raw JSONL data for red herring meaning in All languages combined (11.9kB)
{
"called_from": "form_descriptions/1698",
"msg": "unrecognized head form: the plural form is always red herrings for all senses except the literal fish",
"path": [
"red herring"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "noun",
"title": "red herring",
"trace": ""
}
{
"called_from": "form_descriptions/1698",
"msg": "unrecognized head form: which may take either",
"path": [
"red herring"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "noun",
"title": "red herring",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.