Meaning of red herring | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A herring that is cured in smoke and brine strong enough to turn the flesh red; a typeof kipper.
2. A clue, information, argument, etc. that is or is intended to be misleading, diverting attention from the real answer or issue.
   figuratively
3. A red herring prospectus.
4. A soldier.
   archaic, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“‘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.’”

“Caroline visibly wavered for a second or two, much as a roulette ball might coyly hover between two numbers. Then she declined the tempting red herring.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

““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.””

CEFR level