Red Herring Definition

noun

A smoked herring.

Webster's New World

Something used to divert attention from the basic issue.

Webster's New World

A preliminary prospectus, subject to amendment, for an issue of securities.

Webster's New World

A topic that may or may not have general significance, factual or legal, but that is of absolutely no relevance to the question or matter at hand.

Webster's New World Law

A smoke-cured and salt-brined herring strong enough to turn the flesh red; a type of kipper.

"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." (Samuel Pepys diary entry of 28 February 1660)

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
preliminary prospectus
smoked-herring

Other Word Forms of Red Herring

Noun

Singular:

red herring

Plural:

red-herrings

Origin of Red Herring

It originated from 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.

From Wiktionary
Until 2008, the accepted etymology of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This has proven to be a false etymology.

From Wiktionary
Sense 2, probably from the use of smoked herrings to lay scent trails for hounds to follow

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition