• enPR: pə-rād', IPA: /pəˈɹeɪd/

parade

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

   a Veterans Day parade; a Santa Claus parade; a May Day parade

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

   • 1942, Emily Carr, “British Columbia Nightingale” in The Book of Small, Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1986, p. 67,

     The band that played in the Queen’s birthday parade died when you lost sight of it.

2. (dated) A procession of people moving down a street, organized to protest something.

   Synonyms: demonstration, march

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (novel), Chapter 27,

     The strikers had announced a parade for Tuesday morning, but Colonel Nixon had forbidden it, the newspapers said.

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

   a parade of shops

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

   • 1652, Thomas Urquhart, Ekskybalauron: or, The Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel, London, p. 282,

     […] the ravishing assault of a well-disciplined diction, in a parade of curiosly-mustered words in their several ranks and files […]

   • 1993, Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries, Toronto: Random House of Canada, Chapter 3, p. 85,

     […] he applied himself to his Bible morning and night. Its narratives frankly puzzled him—the parade of bearded kings and prophets, their curious ravings.

   • 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 5, p. 325,

     […] there was a degree of order in the books, a parade of Loeb classics, archaeology, ancient history.

4. A line of goslings led by one parent and often trailed by the other.
5. (countable, uncountable) Pompous show; formal display or exhibition; outward show (as opposed to substance).

   Synonyms: display, exhibition, ostentation, show

   • 1659, Francis Osborne, “Conjectural Paradoxes” in A Miscellany of Sundry Essayes, Paradoxes, and Problematicall Discourses, Letters and Characters, London, p. 92,

     […] Formes little Different from those of a Gally, to no more Thriving an Intention in reference to the Publick, Then Apothecaries paynt and adorn their Shops which is to delude the Ignorant, and hide from Inspection such Arts as lye more in Parade then Substance.

   • 1700, Mary Astell, Some Reflections upon Marriage, London: John Nutt, p. 67,

     What good Conduct does he shew! what Patience exercise! what Subtilty leave untry’d! what Concealment of his Faults! what Parade of his Vertues! what Government of his Passions!

   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, untitled poem, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, Dublin: George Faulkner, 1735, Volume 2, p. 420,

     Be rich, but of your Wealth make no Parade;

     At least, before your Master’s Debts are paid.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma (novel), Chapter 9,

     […] with all his good and agreeable qualities, there was a sort of parade in his speeches which was very apt to incline her to laugh.

6. (military) An assembling of troops for inspection or to receive orders.

   Synonyms: muster

   • 1642, Henry Hexham, The Second Part of The Principles of Art Military, Delft, Chapter 4, p. 31,

     There is left round about the circuit of the whole quarter, a parallell on all sides some 200, or 250 foote betweene the front of the quarter and the trench, called an Alarme Place, for the souldiers to draw out into Armes, into Parade, or when any Alarme or commotion happens […]

   • 1681, Andrew Marvell, “Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax,” stanza 39, in Miscellaneous Poems, London: Robert Boulter, p. 87,

     See how the Flow’rs, as at Parade,

     Under their Colours stand displaid:

     Each Regiment in order grows,

     That of the Tulip Pinke and Rose.

   • 1922, Willa Cather, One of Ours, Chapter 17,

     The next night the soldiers began teaching the girls to dance […] . Claude saw that a good deal was going on, and he lectured his men at parade. But he realized that he might as well scold at the sparrows.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 18,

     At the bottom of the maidan the Military Policemen were drawn up, a dust-coloured rank with bayonets glittering. Verrall was facing them, but not in uniform—he seldom put on his uniform for morning parade, not thinking it necessary with mere Military Policemen.

7. (obsolete) Posture of defense; guard.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 4, lines 779-782,

     And from thir Ivorie Port the Cherubim

     Forth issuing at th’accustomd hour stood armd

     To thir night watches in warlike Parade,

     When Gabriel to his next in power thus spake.

   • 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A. and J. Churchill, 7th edition, 1712, § 94, p. 121,

     [The Tutor] should accustom him to make as much as is possible a true Judgment of Men by those Marks which serve best to shew what they are, and give a Prospect into their Inside, which often shews it self in little Things, especially when they are not in Parade, and upon their Guard.

8. The ground where a military display is held, or where troops are drilled.

   Synonyms: parade ground

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

   He was parked on Chester Parade.

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Chapter 47,

     […] at no great distance from them, where the shoreline curved round, and formed a long riband of shade upon the horizon, a series of points of yellow light began to start into existence, denoting the spot to be the site of Budmouth, where the lamps were being lighted along the parade.

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, "The God of the Gongs", in The Wisdom of Father Brown, p. 216:

     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.

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

• French: parade, défilé
• German: Parade, Aufmarsch, Umzug
• Italian: parata, sfilata
• Portuguese: parada, desfile
• Russian: пара́д
• Spanish: desfile

• French: défilé, étalage
• German: Folge, Abfolge
• Spanish: desfile

• Spanish: parada

• Spanish: (in fencing and boxing) guardia

parade (parades, present participle parading; past and past participle paraded)

1. (intransitive) To march in or as if in a procession.

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

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Chapter 19,

     […] it was her favorite amusement to array herself in the faded brocades, and parade up and down before the long mirror, making stately curtsies, and sweeping her train about with a rustle which delighted her ears.

   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, New York: Knopf, Chapter 22,

     […] if you’re going to parade around with that robe hanging open you’re going to get yourself some bronchitis.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, Chapter 23, p. 166,

     […] Mrs. Parsons, the principal’s wife, would play the graduation march while the lower-grade graduates paraded down the aisles and took their seats below the platform.

   • 2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, “April 6, 2001,” p. 381,

     Stretcher after stretcher paraded into the lot—I was aghast; there seemed no end to them.

2. (transitive) To cause (someone) to march in or as if in a procession; to display or show (something) during a procession.

   They paraded dozens of fashions past the crowd.

   • 1988, Edmund White, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, New York: Ballantine Books, Chapter 8, pp. 166-167,

     I felt a bit like a hunter who’s captured a unicorn and parades it through the town streets […]

   • 2009, Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna, New York: Harper Luxe, p. 452,

     They’re parading ad men through Congress to convince the lawmakers that Free Market is the way to go, and that Harry Truman is in league with Karl Marx.

   • 2013, Nadeem Aslam, The Blind Man's Garden, London: Faber & Faber, Part 2, Chapter 23,

     They kidnapped an Indian officer and beheaded him, bringing the head back to be paraded in the bazaars of Kotlin in Pakistani Kashmir.

3. (transitive) To exhibit in a showy or ostentatious manner.

   Synonyms: show off

   • 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan (poem), London: John and H.L. Hunt, Canto 16, stanza 65, p. 96,

     For she was not a sentimental mourner,

     Parading all her sensibility,

   • 1942, Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road, London: Virago, 1986, Chapter 13, p. 243,

     I doubt if any woman on earth has gotten better effects than she has with black, white and red. Not only that, she knows how to parade it when she gets it on.

   • 1956, Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine, New York: Pocket Books, 1964, Chapter 16, p. 150,

     […] I am sure neither of us cares to parade family business in a lawsuit.

4. (transitive) To march past.

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

5. (transitive) To march through or along; (of a vehicle) to move slowly through or along.
   • 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter 4,

     “What a delightful place Bath is,” said Mrs. Allen as they sat down near the great clock, after parading the room till they were tired;

   • 1849, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley (novel), Chapter 16,

     At one o’clock the troops were to come in; at two they were to be marshalled; till four they were to parade the parish;

   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 8,

     […] since it was no longer possible for him to parade the streets of the town, and be hailed with respect in the usual haunts of his leisure, this sailor felt himself destitute indeed.

   • 1971, Bessie Head, Maru, London: Heinemann, 1995, Part 1, p. 92,

     They said nothing, but stared at each other with the horror of people exposed to all the torture of the demons who parade the African continent.

   • 1991, Ben Okri, The Famished Road, London: Jonathan Cape, Section 2, Book 6, Chapter 10,

     That evening the van of the Party for the Poor also paraded our street. They too blared music and made identical claims.

6. (intransitive, military) To assemble to receive orders.
   • 1637, Robert Monro, Monro His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment, London, p. 64,

     […] the other three Companies were ordained by foure a clocke afternoone, to parade in the Market place, and afterwards to march to their Post […]

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (novel), Chapter 26,

     Here it was we made our camp, within plain view of Stirling Castle, whence we could hear the drums beat as some part of the garrison paraded.

   • 1945, Evelyn Waugh, “Prologue”, in Brideshead Revisited […], 3rd edition, London: Chapman & Hall, OCLC 54130892 ↗, page 10 ↗:

     Hooper had been detailed to inspect the lines. The company was parading at 0730 hours with their kit-bags piled before the huts.

7. (military, transitive) To assemble (soldiers, sailors) for inspection, to receive orders, etc.
   • 1847, Herman Melville, Omoo, Chapter 28,

     In a few moments, we were paraded in the frigate’s gangway; the first lieutenant—an elderly yellow-faced officer, in an ill-cut coat and tarnished gold lace—coming up, and frowning upon us.

   • 1965, John Fowles, The Magus (novel), Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 53, p. 382,

     The men were paraded and briefly addressed by the colonel in my presence […]

8. (intransitive, of geese and other waterfowl) To march in a line led by one parent and often trailed by the other.
   • 1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York: Viking, p. 120,

     Nearer to the water pink-footed geese and white-faced coots paraded in the groves of rhus and bamboo.