Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

herald

[her-uh ld]
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. (formerly) a royal or official messenger, especially one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime.
  2. a person or thing that precedes or comes before; forerunner; harbinger: the returning swallows, those heralds of spring.
  3. a person or thing that proclaims or announces: A good newspaper should be a herald of truth.
  4. (in the Middle Ages) an officer who arranged tournaments and other functions, announced challenges, marshaled combatants, etc., and who was later employed also to arrange processions, funerals, etc., and to regulate the use of armorial bearings.
  5. an official intermediate in rank between a king-of-arms and a pursuivant, in the Heralds' College in England or the Heralds' Office in Scotland.
verb (used with object)
  1. to give news or tidings of; announce; proclaim: a publicity campaign to herald a new film.
  2. to indicate or signal the coming of; usher in.

Origin of herald

1300–50; Middle English herau(l)d < Old French herau(l)t < Frankish *heriwald, equivalent to *heri army + *wald commander (see wield). Compare name Harold

Synonyms

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
7. publicize, ballyhoo, tout.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for heralding

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Settlers, gloomily acquiescent in an unjust fate, brightened at his heralding.

    Tiverton Tales

    Alice Brown

  • The chimes (he could hear none but those of the Cathedral) were heralding the hour of seven.

    The Black Bag

    Louis Joseph Vance

  • And a success it proved that more than justified all the heralding of which Scaramouche had been guilty.

    Scaramouche

    Rafael Sabatini

  • She might have been a new Deborah, heralding her nation to battle.

    David Elginbrod

    George MacDonald

  • The soft light was spreading on the east, heralding the coming day.

    Sir Ludar

    Talbot Baines Reed

British Dictionary definitions for heralding

herald

noun
    1. a person who announces important news
    2. (as modifier)herald angels
  2. often literary a forerunner; harbinger
  3. the intermediate rank of heraldic officer, between king-of-arms and pursuivant
  4. (in the Middle Ages) an official at a tournament
verb (tr)
  1. to announce publicly
  2. to precede or usher in

Word Origin

C14: from Old French herault, of Germanic origin; compare Old English here war; see wield
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for heralding

herald

v.

late 14c., "to sound the praises of," from herald (n.). Related: Heralded; heralding.

herald

n.

late 13c. (in Anglo-Latin); c.1200 as a surname, "messenger, envoy," from Anglo-French heraud, Old French heraut, hiraut (12c.), perhaps from Frankish *hariwald "commander of an army," from Proto-Germanic *harja "army" (from PIE root *koro- "war;" see harry) + *waldaz "to command, rule" (see wield). The form fits, but the sense evolution is difficult to explain, unless in reference to the chief officer of a tournament, who introduced knights and made decisions on rules (which was one of the early senses, often as heraud of armes, though not the earliest in English).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper