Webster's English Dictionary

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herring

her.ring \'her-in\ n or herring or herrings [ME hering, fr. OE h-ring; 
   akin to OHG ha-rinc] pl  herring : a valuable soft-rayed food fish (Clupea 
   harengus) that is abundant  in the temperate and colder parts of the north 
   Atlantic and is preserved in the adult state by smoking or salting and in 
   the young state is extensively canned and sold as sardines; broadly : a 
   fish of the herring family (Clupeidae)