ˈherəldrē, -ri noun
( -es )
Etymology: herald (I) + -ry
1.
a. : the art or practice of an officer of arms including the devising, blazoning, and granting of armorial insignia, the investigation of persons' rights to use arms or particular armorial ensigns, the tracing and recording of pedigrees, the settling of questions of precedence, the marshaling of processions, and the supervision of public ceremonies
b. : pomp and elaborate ceremony especially with display of armorial ensigns : pageantry
historic heraldry of a British coronation
c. : a branch of knowledge that deals with the history and practice of bearing and displaying armorial ensigns and with the art of describing them : armory
2.
a. : armorial ensigns
methods of painting heraldry have changed very little — G.W.Eve
b. : insignia (as military badges or Japanese mons) that resemble or are likened to armorial ensigns
brands are the heraldry of the range — J.F.Dobie
3. archaic : the office of an official crier or messenger
I trust my next heraldry will be to a more friendly court — E.G.Bulwer-Lytton
4. obsolete : social rank or precedence
you are more saucy … than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry — Shakespeare
5. : advance notice or publicity
the play opened with no heraldry to speak of