on parade

on parade

1. (military) Assembled and in formation, prepared for inspection, to receive orders, etc.
   • 1780, Proceedings of a General Court Martial of the Line for the Trial of Major General Arnold‎, Philadelphia, page 8:

     […] he was ordered to leave general Washington’s camp, in consequence of the character that had been given of him; and upon his appearing on parade afterwards, he was ordered to leave general Washington’s camp on pain of imprisonment.

   • 1843, [John Ruskin], chapter 2, in Modern Painters , volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., , →OCLC, , § 3:

     The upper clouds are to the lower, what soldiers on parade are to a mixed multitude; no men walk on their heads or their hands, and so there are certain laws which no clouds violate; but there is nothing except in the upper clouds resembling symmetrical discipline.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “54”, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC:

     Rawdon sat down in the study before the Baronet’s table, set out with the orderly blue books and the letters, the neatly docketed bills and symmetrical pamphlets, the locked account-books, desks, and dispatch boxes, the Bible, the Quarterly Review, and the Court Guide, which all stood as if on parade awaiting the inspection of their chief.

   • 1953, Mary Renault, chapter 3, in The Charioteer‎, New York: Pantheon, published 1959, pages 40–41:

     The morning of Major Ferguson's round had come again. It was the most detested event of the week: for the staff, because he expected the punctilio of a large teaching hospital to which the resources of the place were unequal; and for the patients because for an hour or more they would be virtually on parade unable to move from their beds, smoke or talk.

   • 1973, Jan Morris, chapter 16, in Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress,‎, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, page 332:

     Battalions of infantry stood on parade around the durbar ground […]

2. Marching or riding as part of a parade.
   • 2005 May 26, “Victorious Liverpool parade through city”, in The Guardian:

     Earlier the team had arrived at Liverpool John Lennon airport […] and were greeted by dignitaries, including the lord mayor of Liverpool, Alan Dean—an Everton fan—who officially invited them to go on parade.

3. On public display, shown in a way that attracts attention.
   • 1899, Mary Noailles Murfree (as Charles Egbert Craddock), The Story of Old Fort Loudon, Chapter 1,

     Perhaps her husband realized her fatigue and depression and was willing to put his French accent on parade for her amusement

   • 1924, Hulbert Footner, The Steerers, Chapter 2, in Argosy All-Story Weekly, 2 August, 1924,

     Their manners were better than those of most of the people in our vicinity. They looked at nobody but took their places without the least self-consciousness, and talked to each other in low tones with light smiles. You cannot be sure about married people on parade, of course; they might have been quarrelling fiercely.

   • 1955, Robert K. Murray, chapter 1, in Red Scare: A Study of National Hysteria, 1919-1920‎, New York: McGraw-Hill, published 1964, page 8:

     Much of the progressive movement’s original steam had been generated because of capital’s predominant position in American life and progressives had successfully put the sins of the businessman on parade for all to see.

   • 2004, Colm Tóibín, chapter 5, in The Master‎, New York: Scribner, page 84:

     He had found a public voice, a way of holding himself and forming sentences and formulating policy and judgment, to ensure that the personal and the carnal would be held in check and not have to be on parade.

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