Noun red herring has 3 senses
- red herring - any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue
--1 is a kind of diversion, deviation, digression, deflection, deflexion, divagation
- red herring, smoked herring - a dried and smoked herring having a reddish color
--2 is a kind of herring
- preliminary prospectus, red herring - a first draft of a prospectus; must be clearly marked to indicate that parts may be changed in the final prospectus; "because some portions of the cover page are printed in red ink a preliminary prospectus is sometimes called a red herring"
--3 is a kind of course catalog, course catalogue, prospectus
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