parade

puh-RAYD/pəˈɹeɪd/

24 meanings of parade

1
nouncountable or uncountable
A public procession, especially one held to celebrate a holiday or special event, or, in dated use, one staged as a protest.
Thousands lined the route to see the victory parade pass by.
The annual harvest parade wound through the village square.
Similarprocession, march, cavalcade, pageant
Note
Size was once the dividing line. James Bryce's The American Commonwealth (1888) says that when a procession is exceptionally large, it is called a parade. The protest use is now dated: Sinclair Lewis in 1922 has strikers announce a parade that the authorities forbid. Today the word leans festive, as in a Mardi Gras parade, and a protest is more often called a march or a demonstration.
2
nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable
An orderly or showy display, especially a succession of varied people or a series of things presented one after another.
The trial brought a parade of witnesses to the stand.
His memoir offers a parade of eccentric relatives and old friends.
Similarshow
Note
A borrowed show of bravado: Thomas Blount's Glossographia (1656) explains the French word as "an appearance or shew, a bravado or vaunting offer." The phrase make a parade of means to display something conspicuously, often with a hint of vanity. Abraham Cowley writes of a deed that a whole life "could make any parade of." In a parade of witnesses, the vanity drops away and only the succession remains.
3
verbfigurativelytransitive
To display or reveal something prominently or ostentatiously, often as if showing it off in a procession.
Politicians often parade their humble beginnings during campaigns.
She refused to parade her grief for the cameras.
Similarflaunt, display, exhibit, showcase, trumpet
Oppositehide, conceal, downplay
Note
Showing something off as if in procession is usually a fault. Lord Byron praises a mourner for not "parading all her sensibility," and Mary Renault's speaker does not care "to parade family business in a lawsuit." For that reason the verb often appears negated or disapproving. Zora Neale Hurston turns it to praise in Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), describing a woman who "knows how to parade it."
4
verbintransitive
To march in an impressive or showy manner.
The champions paraded down Main Street, waving to the crowd.
Models parade along the runway with exaggerated confidence.
Similarmarch, strut, swagger, prance, sashay
5
nouncountable or uncountable
An assembly of troops drawn up for inspection, to receive orders, or as a show of force at set times.
The regiment assembled for parade at dawn.
A surprise inspection interrupted the weekly parade.
Similarmuster, inspection, review, assembly
Note
Preparation is the idea underneath: French parade, from parer "to prepare," shaped by Italian parata and the Latin phrase magnō parātū, "with great preparation." In military use the word often drops its article. Milton's cherubim stand "in warlike Parade," and in Willa Cather's One of Ours (1922) an officer lectures his men "at parade." Used that way, it names a routine held at set times rather than a one-off spectacle.
6
verbtransitive or intransitive
To march past in a formal procession, typically before onlookers or reviewing officials.
The regiment paraded the boulevard before dispersing at the barracks.
Each year, veterans parade past the memorial to honor the fallen.
Similarmarch, file, process
7
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To walk up and down in public, especially to show oneself off and be seen by others.
Guests paraded along the terrace, eager to be noticed.
Every evening the young crowd parade through the plaza.
Similarpromenade
Note
The walking-to-be-seen verb keeps loose company: parade up and down, parade around, and even a dummy it. Samuel Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison (1753) has "The whole family paraded it together." That it has no real object; it marks the walking itself as a performance. Louisa May Alcott's Little Women shows the same display in miniature, as a girl parades up and down before a long mirror.
8
verbtransitive or intransitive
To march through or along a route, especially in an organized group.
Demonstrators paraded the main boulevard for hours.
The dancers parade through the old quarter at dusk.
Similarmarch, process
Note
No preposition is needed, because the route is the direct object. Jane Austen's Mrs. Allen in Northanger Abbey sits down "after parading the room till they were tired." Charlotte Brontë's troops in Shirley are to "parade the parish," and Conrad's sailor in Nostromo can no longer "parade the streets." Parade through and parade along say the same thing at greater length.
9
verbintransitive
To assemble in formation for inspection, roll call, or to receive orders.
The battalion parades every morning before the day's duties begin.
Cadets parade at first light so their officers can inspect them.
Similarmuster, assemble
Oppositedisperse
Note
Soldiers do this themselves. The verb is intransitive, so a company simply parades, as in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1945), where the company is "parading at 0730 hours." A set time or place often follows: Robert Monro's companies in 1637 are ordered "to parade in the Market place." When an officer does the assembling, the verb turns transitive in its causative partner.
10
verbtransitive
To assemble soldiers in formation for inspection, roll call, or to receive orders.
The captain paraded the entire company for a surprise inspection.
Commanders parade their troops at dawn to issue the day's orders.
Similarmuster, assemble, marshal
Oppositedismiss, disperse
Note
The officer's side of the drill: the soldiers are the object, and the verb sits naturally in the passive. Herman Melville's sailors in Omoo (1847) "were paraded in the frigate's gangway." In John Fowles's The Magus (1965), "the men were paraded and briefly addressed by the colonel." The passive keeps attention on the people being lined up rather than on whoever gave the order.
11
verbfigurativelytransitive or intransitive
To move slowly through or among a group or area.
The float paraded the crowded streets at walking pace.
Doubts parade through his thoughts whenever he tries to decide.
Similarpass, file, wind, crawl
12
nouncountable
The people who take part in a parade or similar public display, considered together as a single body.
Exhausted after three miles in the heat, the parade gratefully accepted cups of water from onlookers.
The parade cheered as one when the band struck up the final march.
Similarprocession
Note
The verb usually shows when the word means people rather than an event: a parade that cheers, tires or gratefully accepts water is its marchers, not the occasion or the route. Two bodies in particular take the name this way, soldiers drawn up for inspection and a crowd of promenaders, so one word stretches from the drill square to the public walk.

13
nounrarecountable or uncountable
An open area set aside for military assemblies and for practicing close-order drills.
The whole company assembled on the parade for review.
When Barracks are occupied by Troops, the Yards and Parades are to be swept, rolled, and kept clean by them.
1844, The Queen's Regulations & Orders for the Army
Similarsquare
Note
Military writing once used the word on its own for the drill ground. John Harris's Lexicon Technicum (1704) calls it "a Military word" for the place where troops draw together to mount the guards. The Queen's Regulations of 1844 still order barrack "Yards and Parades" swept and rolled. This usage is now uncommon, and the fuller parade ground is the safer choice in modern writing.
14
nounrarecountable or uncountable
The assembled body of soldiers drawn up together for inspection, drill, or ceremonial display.
The parade snapped to attention as the colonel began his inspection.
The Commanding Officer is then to direct the Parade to Order Arms.
1844, The Queen's Regulations & Orders for the Army
Similarformation, ranks
Note
Here the word names the people rather than the occasion or the ground. In the Queen's Regulations of 1844, the commanding officer directs "the Parade to Order Arms," so the formation itself takes the command. The same word therefore covers the assembly as an event and the soldiers in it, and context decides which is meant. This use is uncommon in modern writing.
15
noundatedcountable or uncountable
A public street, square, or walkway where people stroll, in former times also used as a ground for military drill.
They strolled the length of the parade every evening before dinner.
This Square is calcled the Parade.
1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage round the World
Similarpromenade
Note
Strolling grounds took the name, often as a proper noun. William Dampier writes in 1697 that "this Square is called the Parade." In G. K. Chesterton's The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914), an embanked shore begins "to form something like a parade," lamp-posts and all. The term is dated now. Promenade is the everyday equivalent, while parade lives on in street names.
16
nounrarefigurativelyUKcountable or uncountable
A row of shops built together along a street, usually serving a local neighborhood.
A new coffee shop has just opened on the parade near the bus stop.
Most new shopping centres... have broken away from the old strip parades which usually face each other across heavy inter-town traffic.
1968, Roger Kenneth Cox, Retail Site Assessment
Note
A British retail word for shops built in a continuous row along a road. Roger Kenneth Cox's Retail Site Assessment (1968) describes "strip parades" facing each other across heavy traffic, the older pattern that new shopping centers broke away from. In the plural it serves as a category of shopping site. In the singular, often "the parade," it means the row of local shops nearby.
17
nounrarecountable or uncountable
A street, appearing as the final element of certain proper street names in the way Road or Avenue does.
The hotel stands on Marine Parade, overlooking the bay.
Deliveries to Grand Parade must be made before noon.
Similarroad
Note
Street names carry it the way they carry Road or Avenue. It is capitalized as part of the name, and addresses abbreviate it to Pde, as in "His shop is located in Chester Pde." Outside such names the usage is uncommon. It belongs with the promenade meaning among the word's place senses.
18
nounrarecountable or uncountable
A group of geese on the move, especially a line of goslings shepherded by one or more adults.
A parade of geese crossed the meadow, the goslings strung out behind two watchful adults.
Down by the river, the morning parade of geese filed steadily toward the water.
Similargaggle
Note
A collective noun for geese, and an uncommon one, since gaggle remains the ordinary word. It suits geese in motion, above all goslings strung out in a line behind the adults. The verb draws the same picture in the walking-in-file sense for waterfowl. Elephants on the move can be called a parade too, so the word describes the procession rather than the species.
19
nounrarecountable or uncountable
A group of elephants traveling together on the move.
A parade of elephants crossed the dusty track in front of the jeep.
At dawn a parade of elephants made its way down to drink at the river.
Similarherd
20
nounarchaicfigurativelyUKcountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis
Ellipsis of programme parade. Archaic British broadcasting term.
Listen to your regional Programme Parade at 8.10 a.m. daily.
1948, BBC West, Broadcasting in West
Note
A clipped broadcasting title. The full form was Programme Parade, a block of airtime that listed and described upcoming broadcasts, as in the Radio Times heading "Scottish Programme Parade" (1947). BBC West told listeners in 1948 to hear "your regional Programme Parade at 8.10 a.m. daily." The shortened form is British and now historical, and it is best kept for describing broadcasting of that era.
21
verbobsoletetransitive
To equip a place, such as a town or seafront, with a public promenade or open ground laid out for walking and display.
The modern part that faces the sea is... paraded, well lighted, well drained.
1889, James John Hissey, A Tour in a Phaeton through the Eastern Counties
Note
Nobody uses this verb now, and it is best kept for historical description. It appears in James John Hissey's A Tour in a Phaeton through the Eastern Counties (1889) as a past participle in a list of civic improvements: the seafront is "paraded, well lighted, well drained." Read that way, paraded means furnished with a promenade, on a par with lighting and drainage, rather than marched through.
22
Saypuh-RAHDUS/pəˈrɑd/UK/pəˈrɑːd/
nounrarecountable
A defensive action that deflects an opponent's blade, or figuratively a deft turning-aside of a verbal attack.
A swift parade deflected the lunge before it reached his chest.
He met the awkward question with a smooth parade and changed the subject.
Similarparry, deflection
Note
A separate word that shares the spelling. It comes from French parade "a parry," from parer "to parry, to defend oneself," and it is a doublet of parry itself. Thomas Urquhart uses it of fencing in 1652, describing an adversary "going to the parade." The word is uncommon now, and parry is the ordinary choice. Its overlap with the marching senses goes back only to two meanings of French parer.
23
verb
To walk along in a row led by one parent, with the other often following at the rear.
24
noun
The assembled crowd of people strolling together along a fashionable public walk.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–21

From French parade ("an ostentatious or military display"), from parer ("to beautify, prepare, take pride in") plus -ade, probably influenced by earlier Italian parata ("preparation, a military parade") and Latin magnō parātū ("with great preparation"). It is a doublet of pare.

Meaning 22

From French parade ("a parry"), from parer ("to parry, to defend oneself") plus -ade, from Italian parata. It is a doublet of parry.