Shorten Herring
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
A lean, spiritless creature, a Jack-o'-Lent, like a herring that has shot.or ejected, its spawn. Herrings gutted and dried are so called also.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Shorten Herring” mean?
A lean, spiritless creature, a Jack-o'-Lent, like a herring that has shot.or ejected, its spawn. Herrings gutted and dried are so called also.
Is “Shorten Herring” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.