I. pa ‧ rade 1 /pəˈreɪd/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Language: French ; Origin: Old French parer 'to prepare' ]
1 . a public celebration when musical bands, brightly decorated vehicles etc move down the street:
a victory parade
the St Patrick’s Day parade
2 . a military ceremony in which soldiers stand or march together so that important people can examine them:
a military parade
on parade (=be standing or marching in a parade)
troops on parade
3 . a line of people moving along so that other people can watch them:
a fashion parade
4 . a series of people, events etc that seems to never end
parade of
She had a constant parade of young men coming to visit her.
5 . British English a street with a row of small shops
⇨ ↑ identification parade , ↑ hit parade
II. parade 2 BrE AmE verb
1 . PROTEST/CELEBRATE [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to walk or march together to celebrate or protest about something
parade around/past etc
The marchers paraded peacefully through the capital.
2 . SHOW SOMETHING [transitive] if you parade your skills, knowledge, possessions etc, you show them publicly in order to make people admire you SYN show off :
Young athletes will get a chance to parade their skills.
3 . WALK AROUND [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to walk around, especially in a way that shows that you want people to notice and admire you
parade around/past etc
A trio of girls in extremely tight shorts paraded up and down.
4 . SHOW SOMEBODY [transitive always + adverb/preposition] if prisoners are paraded on television or through the streets, they are shown to the public, in order to prove that the people holding them are important or powerful:
The prisoners were paraded in front of the TV cameras.
5 . PROUDLY SHOW [transitive] to proudly show something or someone to other people, because you want to look impressive to them SYN show off :
She paraded her new team.
war medals paraded for public admiration
6 . SOLDIERS [intransitive and transitive] if soldiers parade, or if an officer parades them, they march together so that an important person can watch them
7 . parade as something/be paraded as something if something parades as something else that is better, someone is pretending that it is the other better thing – used to show disapproval:
It’s just self-interest parading as concern for your welfare.