WORD of the day

red herring/RED- HAR-ing/; noun
: Something used to draw attention away from the real issue

Example Sentence: Many of the citizens in Cleveland opined that the mayor’s speeches about the new basketball arena were in fact red herrings, put in place to deflect attention away from that city’s poverty problem and high crime rate.

Did you know?

A herring is a soft-finned bony fish. People who like to eat herring have long preserved them by salting and slowly smoking them. That process makes a herring turn red or dark brown -- and gives them a very strong smell.

Dogs love to sniff such smelly treats, a fact that makes the fish a perfect diversion for anyone trying to distract hunting dogs from the trail of their prey. The practice of using preserved fish to confuse hunting dogs led to the use of the term "red herring" for anything that diverts attention from the issue at hand.