HERRING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does herring mean? 

• HERRING (noun)
  The noun HERRING has 2 senses:

1. valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled

2. commercially important food fish of northern waters of both Atlantic and Pacific

  Familiarity information: HERRING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HERRING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("herring" is a kind of...):

saltwater fish (flesh of fish from the sea used as food)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "herring"):

kipper; kippered herring (salted and smoked herring)

bloater (large fatty herring lightly salted and briefly smoked)

pickled herring (herring preserved in a pickling liquid (usually brine or vinegar))

red herring; smoked herring (a dried and smoked herring having a reddish color)

brisling; sprat (small fatty European fish; usually smoked or canned like sardines)

whitebait (minnows or other small fresh- or saltwater fish (especially herring); usually cooked whole)

Holonyms ("herring" is a part of...):

Clupea harangus; herring (commercially important food fish of northern waters of both Atlantic and Pacific)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Commercially important food fish of northern waters of both Atlantic and Pacific

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Clupea harangus; herring

Hypernyms ("herring" is a kind of...):

food fish (any fish used for food by human beings)

clupeid; clupeid fish (any of numerous soft-finned schooling food fishes of shallow waters of northern seas)

Meronyms (parts of "herring"):

herring (valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "herring"):

Atlantic herring; Clupea harengus harengus (important food fish; found in enormous shoals in the northern Atlantic)

Clupea harengus pallasii; Pacific herring (important food fish of the northern Pacific)

Holonyms ("herring" is a member of...):

Clupea; genus Clupea (type genus of the Clupeidae: typical herrings)

 Context examples 

“The milk you shall have and the bread also, friend, together with the herring, but you must hold the scales between us.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He can hear sounds ranging between 1 and 4 kHz, and it is in this range that fish such as sculpin and herring produce sounds.

(Marine Birds Can Hear Under Water, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

You thought you were as dead as a herring two hours since, and you are all alive and talking now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

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.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Manganese is found in nuts, legumes, seeds, tea, whole grains and leafy green vegetables while selenium can be found in fish like tuna, cod, red snapper and herring and also in beef, poultry, grains and nuts.

(Micronutrients can counter lead effects in blood pressure, SciDev.Net)

Joining these groups, I found bewailing women whose husbands were away in herring or oyster boats, which there was too much reason to think might have foundered before they could run in anywhere for safety.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Instead of lurking on the seafloor and ambushing prey, as many of its contemporaries did, Gladbachus may have been one of the first vertebrates to live in the water column — the space between the ocean's surface and bottom — where anchovies, sardines and herring make their home today.

(Ancient sharks likely more diverse than previously thought, National Science Foundation)

“You double thief!” he cried, “you have eaten my herrings, and I without bite or sup since morning.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Both sculpin and herring are on the cormorant's menu.

(Marine Birds Can Hear Under Water, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

“If he hold the herring he holds the scales, my sapient brother,” cried the fat man.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)