Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

Hello:

I am not quite getting the meaning of "parade" in the context. Was this
some display of servitude?

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[Talking among them about another public-school student]

He said slowly: 'Winmerpoool suffers -- or suffered -- from contorsions
of the bottom. Dickinson told me that, in the days when the fags used to
parade in the library at teatime, they were all standing by the wall one
evening when suddenly there were inarticulate cries. Owing to this
infirmity of his, Widmerpool's legs has unexpectedly given way beneath him.'

A Dance to the Music of Time, Spring, by Anthony Powell, p. 11
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I assume that:
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fag

2 a : an English public-school boy who acts as servant to another boy in
a higher form

M-W Unabridged
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