red herring Hear it!

red herring definition

red herring

  1. a smoked herring
  2. something used to divert attention from the basic issue: from the practice of drawing a herring across the trace in hunting, to distract the hounds
  3. Finance, Informal a preliminary prospectus, subject to amendment, for an issue of securities: from the notice printed on the front in red ink

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.
Related Discussions (1)
TopicRepliesLatest Post
Red Herring86 years ago

Browse Forums