(formerly) a royal or official messenger, especially one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime.
a person or thing that precedes or comes before; forerunner; harbinger: the returning swallows, those heralds of spring.
a person or thing that proclaims or announces: A good newspaper should be a herald of truth.
(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.
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.
to give news or tidings of; announce; proclaim: a publicity campaign to herald a new film.
to indicate or signal the coming of; usher in.
excogitateRead more in this article about some frequently asked questions and fun facts related to our definitions.
flubdubRead more in this article about some frequently asked questions and fun facts related to our definitions.
After a few hundred years, these voices start to resemble doomsday cultists—the end is often heralded but never delivered.
Even so, the fact that the show will be putting an end to one of those awful words should be heralded as a victory.
The Republican Governor of Louisiana was heralded as the new face of the party practically since he was first elected in 2007.
It has been eight years to the day since the Xbox 360 heralded the 7th generation of video game consoles.
The move was heralded as a bipartisan victory by some, but certainly not all.
Dawn came on apace, heralded by the singing of birds, and the splashing of fish in search of the early insect.
He was heralded as traitor, deserter of his people, deserter of Democracy, etc.
Blinding but not burning, heralded by a keen wind, it came by me and passed; a swift wind followed it as it went.
The woman stood a moment in the cold draught of the wind that heralded dawn.
It was the soft, effulgent light which heralded the full, rising moon.
late 14c., "to sound the praises of," from herald (n.). Related: Heralded; heralding.
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).