Definition of "herring" []

• Any of various fishes of the family Clupeidae, especially a commercially important food fish (Clupea harengus) of Atlantic and Pacific waters. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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."
• "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."
• "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."