red

plural reds · alternative Red

1. countableuncountableThe color of the setting sun, blood, and strawberries; the color which is evoked by the longest visible wavelengths (between about 625–740 nm), and a primary additive color.

   Red can be seen as hot or angry.

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   And although we’ve certainly seen a variety of blue shades — from periwinkle to cobalt and even Dean Cain’s indigo-washed costume from the 1990’s TV show “Lois & Clark” — Superman’s uniform is still instantly recognizable across generations. In fact, there is only one film — Zack Snyder’s 2013 “Man of Steel” — in which Superman does not wear his iconic red belted trunks.

   2025 February 21, Leah Dolan, “How the Superman ‘S’ became fashion’s favorite logo”, in CNN

   Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.

   2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN

2. countableA revolutionary socialist or (most commonly) a Communist; (usually capitalized) a Bolshevik, a supporter of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War.
3. countableball gamesOne of the 15 red balls used in snooker, distinguished from the colours.
4. countableuncountableRed wine.

   He produced a wine key from his jacket pocket and effortlessly removed the cork from the bottle of red.

   2005, Jeffrey P. Landry, Temptation Mango

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   A bottle of red, a bottle of white / It all depends upon your appetite / I'll meet you any time you want / in our Italian restaurant.

   1977 September, Billy Joel, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, in The Stranger

   59 sneak in some red Smuggle a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a corkscrew into a long matinee. Red wine is rich in life-extending antioxidants, and the caper will add zest even to a bad movie.

   2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135

5. countableAny of several varieties of ale which are brewed with red or kilned malt, giving the beer a red colour.

   No other country has a brewing tradition as richly diverse as that of Belgium, with beers ranging from pleasant pale lagers to wild, winelike Flemish reds and lambics.

   2016 April 1, Lonely Planet, Helena Smith, Andy Symington, Donna Wheeler, Lonely Planet Belgium & Luxembourg, Lonely Planet, →ISBN

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   American reds and doppelbocks are heavy lagers as well. It really comes down to how the beer was made. Beyond that, brewers are immensely creative and have developed styles of both ale and lager that run a wide range of attributes.

   2012 June 5, Howard Stelzer, Beer Cocktails: 50 Superbly Crafted Cocktails that Liven Up Your Lagers and Ales, Harvard Common Press, →ISBN

6. countableinformalA red variety of an animal, such as a red kangaroo or a red squirrel.
7. UKcountableinformalbiologyA redshank.
8. countablederogatoryoffensiveuncountableAn American Indian.

   Synonyms: redskin

9. countableslanguncountableThe drug secobarbital; a capsule of this drug.

   What in the world ever became of sweet Jane? / She lost her sparkle, you know she isn't the same / Livin' on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine

   1970, “Truckin'”, in American Beauty, performed by Grateful Dead

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   The big market, these days, is in Downers. Reds and smack—Seconal and heroin—and a hellbroth of bad domestic grass sprayed with everything from arsenic to horse tranquillizers.

   1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial, published 2005, page 202

   “Whatchu got, man?” / “Reds, bennies, dexies, yellow jackets, demmies.” / “Yeah, demmies're good shit, man. I pay you. Fuck. I got money. I'm hurting inside. Got beat up. Where my money?”

   1998, Jeffery Deaver, The Coffin Dancer, New York, NY: Pocket Books, published 2021, →ISBN, page 285

   Synonyms: redbird, red devil

10. countableinformaluncountableA red light (a traffic signal)

    Stopping on the red, you're going on the green / Cause tonight will be like nothing you've ever seen / And you're barreling down the boulevard / You're looking for the heart of Saturday night

    1974, Tom Waits, “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night”, in The Heart of Saturday Night

11. IrelandUKcountableinformaluncountablebeveragesRed lemonade
12. countableparticleuncountablenatural sciencesOne of the three color charges for quarks.
13. UScolloquialuncountableChili con carne (usually in the phrase "bowl of red").

    Houston visited a home in an early pioneer settlement where he was offered a bowl of red. Houston eagerly took his first large spoonful. His eyes watering, he spat out his bite […]

    1982, The Rotarian, volume 140, number 1, page 39

14. countableinformaluncountableThe redfish or red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus, a fish with reddish fins and scales.

    The species Sciaenops ocellatus certainly isn’t lacking for nicknames.[…] Clear water also favors sightcasting. Against the dark background of marsh mud, a red will appear like a pumpkin — big, orange and round.

    2013 November, Catch Cormier, “Sightcasting for redfish”, in Louisiana Sportsman

15. slanguncountableTomato ketchup.

    I squeeze some red out over my chips and feel guilty. Nothing is as English as Heinz ketchup in the sauce game, except perhaps HP.

    2016, Jon Bounds, Danny Smith, Pier Review: A Road Trip in Search of the Great British Seaside

16. countableuncountableA red dye or pigment.
17. countableuncountableA pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of red pigment.
18. countableuncountableSomething, or a part of a thing, which is red.

comparative redder · superlative reddest · alternative Red

1. Of a red hue.

   The girl wore a red skirt.

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   He was wearing a red jacket.

   Your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose.

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

   The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.

   1954 July 29, J.R.R. Tolkien, “I: A Long-Expected Party”, in The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings; 1), →ISBN

2. Having an orange-brown or orange-blond colour; ginger.

   Her hair had red highlights.

3. Having a redder hue than usual due to embarrassment, anger, sunburn, etc.; flushed.

   [T]he sun was shining on a happy crowd. It shone on white hats and red faces. It shone on ice lollies and melted them.

   1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 23

4. Having a brown color.
5. card gamesOf the hearts or diamonds suits. Compare black (“of the spades or clubs suits”)

   I got two red queens, and he got one of the black queens.

6. Supportive of, related to, or dominated by a political party or movement represented by the color red:
   1. capitalizedoftengovernmentLeft-wing parties and movements, chiefly socialist or communist, including the U.K. Labour party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

      the red-black grand coalition in Germany

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      "Only Nixon could go to China" was the refrain of conventional wisdom during Richard Nixon’s 1972 official visit to Mao Tse-tung’s regime. Nixon’s anti-communist credentials, however dubious, provided useful camouflage as he opened diplomatic relations with Red China and made breathtaking concessions that an undisguised liberal couldn’t get away with. https://web.archive.org/web/20061114093022/http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1998/vo14no16/vo14no16_dragon.htm

   2. UScapitalizedoftengovernmentThe U.S. Republican Party.First known use 21st c.

      a red state

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      a red Congress

7. derogatoryoffensiveAmerind; relating to Amerindians or First Nations.

   All my friends are Indians / All my friends are brown and red

   1994, Soundgarden, Spoonman

8. astronomyOf the lower-frequency region of the (typically visible) part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
9. particlenatural sciencesOf a red color charge.

alternative Red

1. procedure wordBDSMUsed to indicate that the speaker wishes current sexual activity to stop immediately.

1. archaicparticiplepastsimple past and past participle of rede

present singular third person reds · participle present redding · participle past redded · past redded

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of redd.

plural Reds

1. A Communist.

   Sixty knots? No way, Barnes. The Reds don't have anything that fast.

   1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture)

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   The 5th “Red” army corps is also making for Wuting while the 9th “Red” army corps is preparing bamboo rafts for crossing the Kin Sha Kiang (River) northwards to invade south-western Szechuan.

   1935 May 18, “Gen. Chiang Kai-shek Urges Full Development of Resources in Yunnan”, in The China Weekly Review, volume 72, number 12, →OCLC, page 385, column 1

   The policeman who arrests the "Red" does not understand the theories the "Red" is preaching; if he did, his own position as bodyguard of the monied class might seem less pleasant to him.

   1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I

   A Defense Ministry communique said 40 Communist craft were sighted Tuesday off Peikantang, a tiny island in the Matsu group, but fled when the island's guns opened fire. The Matsus are off the Red port of Foochow, opposite the northern tip of Formosa.

   1954 September 30, “Nationalist Forces Rout 40 Red Boats”, in The Washington Post and Times Herald, volume 77, number 299, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2

   First reports were that the Reds, in five gunboats and swarms of junks, succeeded in landing on tiny Wuchiu in Formosa Strait, but were beaten off with many captured.[…] The attack on Wuchiu, a mile-long, half-mile-wide island 15 miles off the mainland, was the first amphibious operation by the Reds since they began boasting last summer they would "liberate" Formosa.

   1954 November 27, “Red Assault on Tiny Isle Beaten Off, Say Nationalists”, in The Daily Colonist, volume 96, number 294, Victoria, British Columbia, page 1, columns 6, 7

   Teng left China just before the Red takeover to come to this country.

   1963 December 18, Chinatown News, page 12

2. A supporter of a sports team who wears red as part of their kit.
3. board gamesThe player moving the red pieces.

   When the Chief Arbiter announces the start of the game, the player taking Black will press the clock, and Red would make his move before pressing the clock.

   2018 April 28, “World XiangQi Rules”, in World Xiangqi Federation, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2026, page 13

1. A nickname given to someone who has or had red hair.

1. Communist.

   the Red Army

   1. by generalizationRelated to socialist or leftist politics.
2. datedethnicoffensiveslurusuallyNative American.

   the Red race

   Synonyms: red-skinned

1. abbreviationacronymuncountableAcronym of reverse electrodialysis.

1. not comparableon government documentsred (hair color).