Meanings
present singular third person unreddens · participle present unreddening · participle past unreddened · past unreddened
- transitiveTo cause to stop being red.
I was upstairs, trying hastily to fix my face and unredden my eyes when I heard a car on the drive and flew to a window to make sure that it was David.
1976, J. P. Reading, chapter 15, in Tanya, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Book Services, →OCLC, page 1745 more examples
Ils avoient eu la bonté de me faire dire plusieurs fois qu’ils vouloient me voir dès le lendemain de ma quarantaine finie. Et moi, qui savois la crainte que le roi avoit de la petite vérole, je résistai jusqu’à un commandement absolu, auquel il fallut obéir, quoique fort rouge, à quoi le grand froid contribuoit beaucoup, quelques drogues qu’on m’eût fait employer pour me dérougir.
1899, [Louis de Rouvroy,] duc de Saint-Simon, translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, chapter XI, in Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon on the Times of Louis XIV. and the Regency. […], Versailles edition, volume IV, Boston, Mass.: Hardy, Pratt & Company, →OCLC, page 323Moi aussi j’ai chaud, et je possède cette supériorité ou infériorité sur vous que je m’embête d’une façon gigantesque. Je suis venu ici pour faire acte d’obéissance, parce qu’on m’a dit que l’air pur des montagnes me dérougirait et me calmerait les nerfs.
1953, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Francis Steegmuller, “To Ivan Turgenev”, in The Selected Letters of Gustave Flaubert (Great Letters Series), New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, chapter III (Saint Polycarp: 1857–1880), page 246“Sorry, Miss Jackson, that it is not your father greeting you,” she said, her words clipped. “But he is in the shower—” she glanced at Logan “—trying to unredden his eyes for his daughter’s arrival.”
1985 December, Gloria Douglas, chapter 4, in Winning Hearts (Harlequin Temptation; 88), Toronto, Ont.: Harlequin Books, →ISBN, page 69Hortensie reitet zum Olm / Sie loht im Zorne, meutert / Hœr’Untier, Mimose lenzt / Entreete sie im Holzturm / Lunte her, zittere im Moos / Turmotter ziehe mein Los / Immer zeitlose Totenuhr
2004, Hans Bellmer, translated by Jon Graham, “Roses with a Violet Heart”, in Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious, or The Anatomy of the Image, Waterbury Center, Vt.: Dominion Press, →ISBN, chapter II (The Anatomy of Love), page 39I pause, only briefly, before I am overcome with guilt. “I understand what you are saying, Carla. And I am sorry to everyone if I end up taking my frustrations out on you, when it wasn’t your fault. I am sorry. And thank you for your honesty. I will try to do better.” They nod. I catch my breath, unredden my cheeks, feel ashamed, feel like one of the worst teachers alive.
2009, lb briggs, “In”, in It’s Alright: A Truckface Anthology, volume 2, Tacoma, Wash.: Mend My Dress Press, published 2013, →ISBN, issue 13, pages 158–159Synonyms: deredden
- transitiveTo correct for redshift.
For values of τ >1 the difference between our correction factors and the standard reddening law is large, especially in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. We think that our correction factors should be prefered^([sic]) over the standard reddening law to unredden galaxy spectra.
1985, Gustavo Bruzual A[lfonzo], “Spectral Evolution of galaxies”, in Cesare Chiosi, Alvio Renzini, editors, Spectral Evolution of Galaxies: Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop of the Advanced School of Astronomy of the “Ettore Majorana” Centre for Scientific Culture, […] (Astrophysics and Space Science Library […]; 122, Proceedings), Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, published 1986, →ISBN, part III (Towards Modelling the Spectral Evolution of Galaxies), page 2812 more examples
Let me first ask one question: Who cares what the interstellar dust is made of? The typical optical astronomer couldn’t care less, for if you simply tell him the reddening law, particularly the ratio of total to selective extinction, he can unredden his clusters, correct the distance moduli, find the turnoff points, determine the age of the galaxy, and be happy! If this were the only astrophysical importance of the dust, I would stop now.
1971, John E[ldon] Gaustad, “The Composition of Interstellar Dust”, in Beverly T[urner] Lynds, editor, Dark Nebulae, Globules, and Protostars, Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 91It has been found that, in some cases, the extinction estimated from the γ-ray burst spectrum is different from that of the Milky Way or Magellanic Clouds. When there are differences, however, they are typically marked in the UV, at wavelengths below ~2500 Å, and modest at longer wavelengths. This, together with the low estimate of the extinction towards SN 1998bw, make it reasonable to assume a typical Milky Way extinction law to unredden the lights curves presented here.
2011, Alejandro Clocchiatti, Nicholas B[oris] Suntzeff, Ricardo Covarrubias, Pablo Candia, “The Ultimate Light Curve of SN 1998bw/GRB 980425”, in The Astronomical Journal, Bristol: IOP Publishing for the American Astronomical Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, section 3 (Light Curves), subsection 2 (The Unreddened Rest Frame Light curves), page 6Synonyms: deredden
- intransitiveTo cease being red; to lose redness.
Wer nahm das Rosa an? Wer wußte auch, daß es sich sammelte in diesen Dolden? Wie Dinge unter Gold, die sich entgolden, entröten sie sich sanft, wie im Gebrauch.
a. 1964, Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by J[ames] B[lair] Leishman, “Pink Hydrangea”, in New Poems […], London: Hogarth Press, published 1964, →OCLC, 2nd part, page 2832 more examples
She was saying good-bye to her boy, her sad dark eyes pouring out tears as she clutched at me with her small hands, her Italian features showing all the hurt a mother feels when she fears for what is about to happen to her son in his quest for his own life. It made me cry, and I was ashamed of it. How could I go to West Point, the school of military leaders, with tears in my eyes? That was a place for men, not mama’s boys. Thank God, I had thirty miles for my eyes to unredden.
1985, James R. McDonough, “The Road to War”, in Platoon Leader, Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, →ISBN, page 8He glanced to his left, and after their eyes met he was slow in turning away, but he did, and reddened so much it looked like apoplexy. He was tall, he had a sensitive face with fine features, he was as young as she was, and so shy that, though he tried, he couldn’t unredden.
2017, Mark Helprin, “Élodi Alone”, in Paris in the Present Tense, New York, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, →ISBN, part III (Loyal à Mort), pages 350–351
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo cause to stop being red.
verbTo correct for redshift.
Origin
Translations
French dérougir, se dérougir
- dérougircause to stop being red
- se dérougircease being red; lose redness
Cite this entry
unredden. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unredden
“unredden.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unredden. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unredden,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unredden.
Source: unredden on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.