HERALD • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Herald

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/hˈɛrəld/ Listen

noun

Herald n.

1.

(Antiq.) An officer whose business was to denounce or proclaim war, to challenge to battle, to proclaim peace, and to bear messages from the commander of an army. He was invested with a sacred and inviolable character.

2.

In the Middle Ages, the officer charged with the above duties, and also with the care of genealogies, of the rights and privileges of noble families, and especially of armorial bearings. In modern times, some vestiges of this office remain, especially in England. See Heralds' College (below), and King-at-Arms.

3.

A proclaimer; one who, or that which, publishes or announces; as, the herald of another's fame.

4.

A forerunner; a a precursor; a harbinger. "It was the lark, the herald of the morn."

5.

Any messenger. "My herald is returned."

Heralds' College, in England, an ancient corporation, dependent upon the crown, instituted or perhaps recognized by Richard III. in 1483, consisting of the three Kings-at-Arms and the Chester, Lancaster, Richmond, Somerset, Windsor, and York Heralds, together with the Earl Marshal. This retains from the Middle Ages the charge of the armorial bearings of persons privileged to bear them, as well as of genealogies and kindred subjects; called also College of Arms.

verb

Herald v. t. (past & past part. heralded; pres. part. heralding) To introduce, or give tidings of, as by a herald; to proclaim; to announce; to foretell; to usher in.

See images of 'Herald'

Etymology of 'Herald'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Herald" Quotes from Famous Books

... The home scenes in which these little Peppers are engaged are capitally described.... Will find prominent place among the higher class of juvenile presentation books.—Religious Herald. ...

— Lilith - The Legend of the First Woman • Ada Langworthy Collier

... abbeys, and architecture. B made a blunder, which C corrected. D demonstrated that E was in error, and that F was wrong in philology, and neither philosopher nor physician, though he affected to be both. G was a genealogist. H was an herald who helped him. I was an inquisitive inquirer who found reason for suspecting J to be a Jesuit. M was a mathematician. N noted the weather. O observed the stars. P was a poet who peddled in pastorals, {317} and prayed ...

— Notes and Queries, Number 20, March 16, 1850 • Various

... Theydon, voicing his surprise as a preliminary to a decided refusal. He was interrupted by the insistent clang of the telephone— that curt herald which brooks no delay in answering its ...

— Number Seventeen • Louis Tracy

... released from servitude any more than you can keep back the ocean with your hand after you have thrown down the sea-wall which restrained its impatient tides. Freedom is every-where in history the herald of progress. It is written in the annals of all nations. It is a law of the human race. Ignorance, idleness, brutality—these belong to slavery; they are her natural offspring and allies, and the gentleman from New ...

— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... doubtless, as well as poetically, the English winter, but such is not the character of the season in New England. Clouds and storms, indeed, herald his advent and attend his march; capricious too his humor; but he is neither "sullen" nor "sad." No brighter skies than his, whether the sun with rays of mitigated warmth but of intenser light, sparkles ...

— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams

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