red-shirt

A form of red shirt — A member of the UDD (National United Front for Democracy) who supported Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (and subsequent Thaksin-affiliated parties) in the conflict in Thailand after the 2006 coup d'etat.

Meanings

nounred-shirt (plural red-shirts)

plural red-shirts

  1. alternativeAlternative form of Red Shirt (“follower of Garibaldi”).
    3 more examples

    The suspension of hostilities, and the retreat of the Bourbon forces towards the sea, again inspired the people with confidence and daring; so much so, that we were obliged to station red-shirts at the advanced posts, to prevent the collisions between the Sicilians and the Bourbon troops which would have ensued from the intense hatred of the former for the latter.

    1889, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi, page 190

    THE Italian brigade in the Argonne, under the leadership of Peppino Garibaldi, four years junior to D'Annunzio and grandson of the great hero, had fought bravely but in vain against the superior forces of their German opponents. Five hundred of the original 2,000 red-shirts had been killed, wounded, or lost in the fighting; the depleted force was disbanded on 5 March 1915.'

    2001, John Woodhouse, Gabriele D'Annunzio: Defiant Archangel, →ISBN, page Z-83

    Whether it was the valiant defense of Warsaw by the doomed Jewish Corps in 1794 under the command of the legendary Berek Joselewicz or the enthusiasm of the Jewish volunteers who Hocked to the banner during the German Wars of Liberation in the struggle against Napoleon; the loyal service of Jewish National Guardsmen and soldiers (purportedly "20,000" in number) to the Magyar cause in 1848 and 1849 (explicitly acknowledged in the prefatory remarks to the law emancipating Jews during the waning days of Kossuth's revolution); or the Jewish insurgents who joined Garibaldis red-shirts in 1860, the valor and often the disproportionate participation of Jewish men at arms were to be repeatedly invoked to demonstrate that Jews were no stepsons of the nation, but deserved to be emancipated and regarded as genuine Pole and Germans, Hungarians and Italians.

    2005, Pieter M. Judson, Marsha L. Rozenblit, Constructing Nationalities in East Central Europe, →ISBN, page 19
  2. alternativeAlternative form of Red Shirt (“member of the UDD”).

    A concrete indicator is the rapid growth of the dissenting 'red-shirt' grassroot people who ensured the victory of the Pheu Thai Party over the conservative yellow-shirt group.

    2012, P. Thomas, P. Lee, Global and Local Televangelism, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

red-shirt. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/red-shirt

MLA

“red-shirt.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/red-shirt. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “red-shirt,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/red-shirt.

Source: red-shirt on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.