Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various silvery fishes of the family Clupeidae, especially the commercially important Clupea harengus of the northern Atlantic Ocean and C. pallasii of the northern Pacific Ocean.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To manure with herring or other fish.
  • noun In Australia, Prototroctes maræna, the Yarra herring, fresh-water herring, grayling, or cucumber-mullet, found in the rivers of Victoria and Tasmania.
  • noun The ten-pounder, Elops saurus, found in all tropical waters.
  • noun A clupeoid fish, Clupea harengus, of great economic importance and commercial value.
  • noun A herring which has been gutted and dried for keeping.
  • noun A pickled herring.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of various species of fishes of the genus Clupea, and allied genera, esp. the common round or English herring (Clupea harengus) of the North Atlantic. Herrings move in vast schools, coming in spring to the shores of Europe and America, where they are salted and smoked in great quantities.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a large gull which feeds in part upon herrings; esp., Larus argentatus in America, and Larus cachinnans in England. See Gull.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the common porpoise.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The opah.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun commercially important food fish of northern waters of both Atlantic and Pacific
  • noun valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring, from Proto-Germanic *hēringaz, further etymology unknown. Cognate with Dutch haring, German Hering etc.

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Examples

  • In April & May come up another kind of fish which they call herring, or old wives, in infinite schools into a small river running under the town, and so into a great pond or lake of a mile broad where they cast their spawn, the water of the said river being in many places not above half a foot deep.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2007

  • Well, some Folks say that herring do not live in the Mediterranean Sea, that ancient Folks knew nothing about them, but that what we know as herring are really sardines.

    Lord Dolphin Harriet A. Cheever

  • The real red herring is of course that individuals expressing themselves democratically against the wishes of such as Rubin et al constitute a threat to "free markets", which do not exist as such anyway.

    Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Bias, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • I suppose your point about it being a red herring is correct in this case if gross negligence as opposed to ordinary negligence can be proven.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Prosecuting BP 2010

  • If a herring is dragged across a trail that hounds are following, it throws them off the scent. mo-wo Said,

    I Was Drinking When I Wrote This | Her Bad Mother 2007

  • Imported pickled herring is a popular item in the upscale supermarkets, and a salad of herring with a variety of legumes, including garbanzos and fava beans, is a specialty of the northern state of Coahuila.

    Culinary guide to Mexican fish and shellfish: Las delicias del mar I 2006

  • Imported pickled herring is a popular item in the upscale supermarkets, and a salad of herring with a variety of legumes, including garbanzos and fava beans, is a specialty of the northern state of Coahuila.

    Culinary guide to Mexican fish and shellfish: Las delicias del mar I 2006

  • Imported pickled herring is a popular item in the upscale supermarkets, and a salad of herring with a variety of legumes, including garbanzos and fava beans, is a specialty of the northern state of Coahuila.

    Culinary guide to Mexican fish and shellfish: Las delicias del mar I 2006

  • Nine times out of 10 when he finds gannets, pelicans, or terns diving on bay anchovies, pogies, or threadfin herring, he also finds a school of redfish feasting on the same bait.

    Flyfishing for Redfish on the Flats from Texas to Florida 2005

  • Red Herrings: A red herring is defined as something that draws attention away from the central issue.

    The Closers by Michael Connelly: Questions 2005

  • The chunks of oily fish are tempered with soft shreds of sweet carrot, beet, and boiled potato, and it’s all threaded through with grassy dill. It’s even better scooped onto a freshly made silver dollar–sized blini. The dish, herring under a fur coat, is one of the most famous that chef and owner Bonnie Morales serves at her restaurant Kachka, in Portland, Oregon, and it’s also one of the most photographed dishes in Portland.

    You Will Instagram This: Kachka's Herring Under a Fur Coat Anna Hezel 2019

  • But the most striking dish—the one everyone comes home talking about—is also the most humble, a pink-topped salad called herring under a fur coat, served in the shape of a lovely rainbow-layered galette of fish and vegetable. It looks like nothing else on earth, and it tastes like pure comfort.

    Kachka's Herring Under a Fur Coat: 12 Wonders of Portland Food Matthew Korfhage 2026

  • “Making shuba may have made me get over my childhood fear of shuba,” says Elliot Fonarev of the popular Russian dish also known as “herring under a fur coat.”

    Shuba (Russian Herring Salad) Elliot Fonarev 2026

Comments

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  • "Herring was so plentiful that the Abbey of St Edmond received a rent of 30,000 fish a year from the port of Beccles."

    --Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 69

    January 8, 2017