Search the Dictionary

pecies of fishes of the genus Clupea, and allied genera, esp. the common round or English herring (C. 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. Herring gull (Zoöl.), a large gull which feeds…

Pertaining to, or like, the spine of a herring; especially, characterized by an arrangement of work in rows of parallel lines, which in the alternate rows slope in different directions. Herringbone stitch, a kind of cross-stitch in needlework, chiefly used in flannel. Simmonds.

A herring preserved in brine; a pickled herring. [Obs.] Shak.

A North American fish (Clupea vernalis) of the Herring family. It is called also ellwife, ellwhop, branch herring. The name is locally applied to other related species.

A colorless liquid prepared from herring brine and containing amines, used as a local antiseptic.

A small fish, about three inches in length, of the Herring family (Engraulis encrasicholus), caught in vast numbers in the Mediterranean, and pickled for exportation. The name is also applied to several allied species.

icate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

A person who stands on a rock or eminence to espy the shoals of herring, etc., and to give notice to the men in boats which way they pass; a conder; a huer.

To dry (herrings) in smoke. See Blote.

The common herring, esp. when of large size, smoked, and half dried; -- called also bloat herring.

To cure, as herrings, by salting and smoking them; to bloat. [Obs.]

An American river herring (Clupea æstivalis), closely allied to the alewife.

, two pieces of bent iron, which bear the bit, the cross chains, and the curb. -- Branch herring. See Alewife. -- Root and branch , totally, wholly.

The young of the common herring; also, a small species of herring; the sprat.

A small strong vessel with two masts and two cabins; -- used in the herring fishery. The Dutch whalers and herring busses. Macaulay.

A leg of mutton roasted, stuffed with white herrings and sweet herbs. Wright.

A barrel or cask, as of fish. "A cade of herrings." Shak. A cade of herrings is 500, of sprats 1,000. Jacob, Law Dict.

Four; that is, as many as are thrown into a vessel at once in counting herrings, etc; a warp.

The Lake herring (Coregonus Artedi), valuable food fish of the Great Lakes of North America. The name is also applied to C. Hoyi, a related species of Lake Michigan.

Of or pertaining to the Herring family.