# What does ‘a red herring’ mean?

To “a red herring” means to a misleading clue meant to distract from the truth. Brewer's explains the phrase from an old practice of drawing a strong-smelling smoked herring across a trail to test or throw off hounds; hence any false scent laid to divert attention.

## What it means

- Brewer's explains the phrase from an old practice of drawing a strong-smelling smoked herring across a trail to test or throw off hounds; hence any false scent laid to divert attention.

## Action steps

1. Common in detective stories, debate, and political spin.
2. Example: The email address was a red herring — the real evidence was elsewhere.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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Published: 2026-07-18T04:16:34.392122+00:00
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Last verified: 2026-07-18
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