RED HERRING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Red herring

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/rɛd hˈɛrɪŋ/ Listen

Red herring

noun

Any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue.

A dried and smoked herring having a reddish color. Synonym: smoked herring.

A first draft of a prospectus; must be clearly marked to indicate that parts may be changed in the final prospectus. Synonym: preliminary prospectus.

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Etymology of 'Red herring'

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"Red herring" Quotes from Famous Books

... came in from any of these messages; but there was always an excellent chance that such misinformation would drag a red herring across the trail ...

— The Flying Legion • George Allan England

... mollusks, and well-doing radiates, and aspiring rabbits, and all the rest. The world ought to be so full of them that no man could sort them off into species, or tell which was fish, which was flesh, and which red herring; and no pork packer ...

— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... four-wheeler. In a quarter of an hour, we shall be at your service. If you are telegraphing home, Mr. Huxtable, it would be well to allow the people in your neighbourhood to imagine that the inquiry is still going on in Liverpool, or wherever else that red herring led your pack. In the meantime I will do a little quiet work at your own doors, and perhaps the scent is not so cold but that two old hounds like Watson and myself may get ...

— The Return of Sherlock Holmes • Arthur Conan Doyle