Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Parade \Pa*rade"\, n. [F., fr. Sp. parada a halt or stopping, an assembling for exercise, a place where troops are assembled to exercise, fr. parar to stop, to prepare. See Pare, v. t.]
The ground where a military display is held, or where troops are drilled. Also called parade ground.
(Mil.) An assembly and orderly arrangement or display of troops, in full equipments, for inspection or evolutions before some superior officer; a review of troops. Parades are general, regimental, or private (troop, battery, or company), according to the force assembled.
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Hence: Any imposing procession; the movement of any group of people marshaled in military order, especially a festive public procession, which may include a marching band, persons in varied costume, vehicles with elaborate displays, and other forms of entertainment, held in commemoration or celebration of an event or in honor of a person or persons; as, a parade of firemen; a Thanksgiving Day parade; a Memorial Day parade; a ticker-tape parade.
In state returned the grand parade.
--Swift. -
Hence: A pompous show; a formal or ostentatious display or exhibition.
Be rich, but of your wealth make no parade.
--Swift. -
Posture of defense; guard. [A Gallicism.]
When they are not in parade, and upon their guard.
--Locke. -
A public walk; a promenade.
Dress parade, Undress parade. See under Dress, and Undress.
Parade rest, a position of rest for soldiers, in which, however, they are required to be silent and motionless.
--Wilhelm.Syn: Ostentation; display; show.
Usage: Parade, Ostentation. Parade is a pompous exhibition of things for the purpose of display; ostentation now generally indicates a parade of virtues or other qualities for which one expects to be honored. ``It was not in the mere parade of royalty that the Mexican potentates exhibited their power.''
--Robertson. ``We are dazzled with the splendor of titles, the ostentation of learning, and the noise of victories.''
--Spectator.
Wiktionary
n. A large area of hard ground, usually of concrete or tarmac, where soldiers practice routine marching maneuvres.
WordNet
n. an area for holding parades
Usage examples of "parade ground".
She reached the lectern between the long conference table and the edge of the stage and turned with parade ground precision to take her place behind it.
As we clattered down the stairs, uniform hats clutched under our arms, cadets from the other floors joined us until we spilled out of our dormitory to join a green-clad flood of students cascading onto the parade ground in the dimness of pre-dawn.
The sun beat down on the soldiers of Kotir as they stood in serried ranks upon the parade ground.
The procession streamed across the open parade ground towards the fort, with the crowds running ahead of the carriage and lining both sides of the route.
These numskull Wanderjahrian FPs couldn't do a damn thing right, not unless it was looking parade ground sharp and marching in straight lines.
There were huts, tents, two brick buildings, and, on a higher swell of land, a great parade ground that was thick with marching men.
A Chaplain had appeared and stood in his white surplice on the parade ground and out of the meaningless mumbles a phrase had somehow lodged in Sharpe's mind, a phrase from the prayer book that came back to him now as he wondered whether he really could kill a man for raping his woman.
Somebody had set up a big post in the parade ground just back of where the adjutant stood.
With spit and spanking I managed to get enough of the dust and the mud her tears had made of it off of her face and clothes that we would not invite comments when we crossed the parade ground.