1A public procession, especially one celebrating a special day or event.

1. 1.1 A formal march or gathering of troops for inspection or display.
   a military parade

   mass noun the men massed for parade

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It was a grand affair, with troop parades, poems, songs, a feast and the unveiling of a trophy.
   • After the inspection, the parade marched through the city centre with colours flying, drums beating and bayonets fixed.
   • The crowd and live television audience were treated to a spectacular display of military parades, flypasts and parachutists.
   • Militia units, particularly elite volunteer regiments, used the occasion to march in parades and display their military prowess and social standing.
   • Participating in the parade were visiting troops from Britain, France and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
   • The president salutes army troops during a military parade yesterday, during the final inspection before leaving office.
   • The band played traditional marches in a formal way for review parades and retreat formations.
   • The troops do a ceremonial parade to mark the start of the proceedings.
   • Cleland took his cine camera and filmed the army parade in Red Square, and was astonished not to be arrested.
   • Sir Charles Court, who was involved in ensuring a military presence in the region, inspected the parade and delivered an address to the gathering.
   • Civic events were enlivened by military parades and bands, while civil disorder was suppressed by troops acting in support of the gendarmerie, which was itself a branch of the armed forces.
   • Later that day his body was delivered to the Spanish Army in a formal military parade.
   • The government sponsors civic and military parades for political holidays such as the Fourth of July and Constitution Day.
   • National Day is more ceremonial, including military parades, cannonades, and a ‘Te Deum’ sung in the national cathedral.
   • Military parades and reviews, not surprisingly in a country ruled by a general, were an almost daily spectacle.
   • ‘When I saw the military in parades, I got a very patriotic feeling,’ she recalled.
   • Drills, physical exercises, bayonet exercises, inspections, schools, parades, marches, and reviews occupied the soldiers.
   • There will be military parades, exhibitions, displays of more than 100 wartime vehicles and a D-Day battle scenario on Morecambe beach close to the lifeboat station.
   • Government rallies, held around the country, include military parades and speeches.
   • The military parade, a colourful pageant with troops, armoured vehicles and aircraft roaring overhead, continued uninterrupted.

   Synonyms

   procession, march, cavalcade, motorcade, carcade, cortège, ceremony, spectacle, display, pageant, concours, file, train, column
2. 1.2 A series of people or things appearing or being displayed one after the other.
   the parade of Hollywood celebrities who troop on to his show

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Of course, the world of sport has witnessed an endless parade of celebrities.
   • There are countless winks to the audience as a parade of stars appears in self-effacing cameos.
   • It was tough concentrating, because there on the pavement was a non-stop parade of women who appeared to be lifetime members of the What Not To Wear Club.
   • There was a parade of other celebrities - all of whom were featured in that US magazine.
   • The exhibition also saw a parade of ethnic dresses for men, women and kids.
3. 1.3 A boastful or ostentatious display.
   a pompous parade of erudition

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Jests against religion, sneers at the piety of the godly, irreverent and shocking swearing, and a boastful parade of the immoralities they have committed make up the conversation, I fear, of some circles.
   • Money and rank mean everything to Mr. Osborne, with his pompous parade of dull cynicism.

   Synonyms

   exhibition, show, display, performance, production, spectacle, demonstration

   fuss, bother, to-do, commotion, ado

   informal hoo-ha

2British A public square or promenade.

1. 2.1 A row of shops.
   a shopping parade

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A giant community mural is the latest idea to perk up a shopping parade plagued by nuisance youths.
   • The post office, which also sells toys, stationery and cards, is on a long parade of shops.
   • A little further away on Boroughbridge Road a very popular bakery closed and will now be demolished for flats, which seems a bit strange because it was part of a parade of shops.
   • To support the team's work, Merton Council has arranged to clean graffiti free of charge from small shop parades.
   • It wants to build a £15m supermarket on the site, together with a small parade of shops and an office development.

   Synonyms

   shopping precinct, shopping complex, mall, shopping mall, arcade, shopping arcade, galleria, shopping parade

3A parade ground.

1no object (of troops) assemble for a formal inspection or ceremonial occasion.

1. 1.1 Walk or march through a public place in a formal procession or in an ostentatious way.
   officers will parade through the town centre

   with object carefree young men were parading the streets

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Eight uniformed servicemen will parade on a float as part of the procession this weekend, and a mobile recruiting office is to be set up.
   • Up to 94 workers from both plants paraded to City Hall before the meeting.
   • The thought of parading himself in public like that was not entirely to his taste, but he knew that it was necessary if he was going to be elected.
   • The young man paraded about, stripping off his shirt to display his ostensible wounds to the police and passers-by.
   • Where once hundreds of US airmen paraded, police officers from Scotland's seven forces now patrol.
   • Three of the ladies arrived late but were allowed to parade, slotted between the procession of kings.
   • My mother would often parade in public places with me whenever she would go out and I was not doing anything at home.
   • Almost the entire crew of 250 officers and men will parade through York on Friday morning to exercise their right of Freedom of the City.
   • Municipal councilors, government employees and the general public then paraded around town to welcome in the Thai New Year.
   • Impossibly beautiful girls are parading down the Promenade des Anglais, hurling bright sprays of Mimosa to a boisterous crowd.
   • The sight and sound of predominately young males parading around the county with stereos thumping and large exhausts growling is a growing nuisance.
   • Those who dislike any form of martial mimicry or organised religion do not want to see their children parading and marching to church in uniform.

   Synonyms

   march, process, file, troop, go in columns, pass in formation, promenade

2with object Display (someone or something) while marching or moving around a place.

1. 2.1 Display (something) in order to impress or attract attention.
   he paraded his knowledge

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The King paraded his army, hoping to impress and perhaps intimidate.
   • The university students swagger down here as though it were a catwalk, parading their Parisian clothes.
   • An estimated 750,000 people lined London's streets to pay tribute to his victorious team as it paraded the trophy on an open-topped bus tour of the capital.
   • Domed ceilings, Georgian columns and plunging chandeliers exude palatial grandeur, an impression enhanced by the amount of jewellery paraded by Glasgow's glitterati.
   • They become immediately boring when they deteriorate into merely parading their ‘knowledge’.
   • For the first time inflatables were included in the colourful procession with one band parading a 20 ft blow-up star!
   • They will be strutting down the beaches of Ibiza parading the latest designer gear.

   Synonyms

   display, exhibit, make a show of, flaunt, show, show off, demonstrate, draw attention to, air
2. 2.2parade asno object Appear falsely as; masquerade as.
   these untruths parading as history

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Handsome, dashing even, a family man, he was paraded as a goodwill ambassador as everything that America wasn't.
   • Most CEOs tend to think of innovation as no more than R&D, and ‘the same distortion occurs when creativity is paraded as innovation,’ say Bubner.
   • Modern Hopis and Navajos parade as hoary traditionalists, rightful stewards by ancestral occupance.
   • Complaints reportedly focused on the opening ceremony, in which more than 56 million Americans watched a man in a full bodysuit parade as a naked statue of Eros, the Greek god of love.
   • He gets to parade as some sort of political saint, promote his DVD, and put pressure on the Academy to nominate him for Best Picture!