parade

Etymology

Borrowing from French parade (“show, display, parade, parry, formerly also a halt on horseback”), from Spanish parada (“a halt, stop, pause, a parade”), from parar (“to halt, stop, get ready, prepare”), from Latin parare (“to prepare, in Medieval Latin and Rom. also to halt, stop, prevent, guard against, etc., also dress, trim, adorn”); see pare. Compare parry, a doublet of parade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈɹeɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

parade (plural parades)

1. An organized procession consisting of a series of consecutive displays, performances, exhibits, etc. displayed by moving down a street past a crowd.

   The floats and horses in the parade were impressive, but the marching bands were really amazing.

2. Any succession, series, or display of items.

   The dinner was a parade of courses, each featuring foods more elaborate than the last.

   a parade of shops

3. A line of goslings led by one parent and often trailed by the other.
4. The ground where a military display is held, or where troops are drilled.
5. Pompous show; formal display or exhibition.
   • Jonathan Swift

     Be rich, but of your wealth make no parade.

6. (Gallicism) Posture of defense; guard.
   • John Locke

     when they are not in parade, and upon their guard

7. A public walk; a promenade; now used in street names.

   He was parked on Chester Parade.

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, "The God of the Gongs", in The Wisdom of Father Brown, p. 216:
8. (dated) An open space usable for military parades.

   • After walking a mile or two farther, they found that the shore was beginning to be formally embanked, so as to form something like a parade; the ugly lamp-posts became less few and far between and more ornamental, though quite equally ugly.

9. (zoology, collective) (uncommon) A term of venery denoting a herd of elephants on the move.

Verb

parade (third-person singular simple present parades, present participle parading, simple past and past participle paraded)

1. (intransitive) To march or to display.

   They paraded around the field, simply to show their discipline.

2. (transitive) To display or show; to exhibit in a showy or ostentatious manner; to show off.

   They paraded dozens of fashions past the crowd.

   Parading all her sensibility. Byron.

3. (transitive) To march past.

   After the field show, it is customary to parade the stands before exiting the field.

Further reading

• parade in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• parade in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• earpad

Verb

parade

1. first-person singular present indicative of parader
2. third-person singular present indicative of parader
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of parader
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of parader
5. second-person singular imperative of parader

Anagrams

• dérapa

Alternative forms

• pathade (Jersey)

Noun

parade f (plural parades)

1. (Guernsey) parade

Adjective

parade

1. absolute singular definite and plural form of parad.

Verb

parade

1. past tense of para.