red flag noun

1. A flag used as a signal of danger, defiance, no mercy, or an auction sale
2. The banner of socialism or of revolution
3. (with caps) a socialist's song

red fox noun

A common fox, native to Europe, parts of Asia, N Africa and N America, having a reddish-brown coat and white underparts

red giant noun

A red star of high luminosity

red grouse noun

Another name for the common grouse

Red Guard noun

A member of a strict Maoist youth movement in China, esp active in the cultural revolution of the late 1960s

red gum noun

1. An eruption of the skin in teething infants
2. A Eucalyptus (of various kinds) with red gum
3. The hard red timber from this tree

redˈ-haired adjective

red hand noun

The bloody hand (see under hand)

redhandˈed adjective and adverb

In the very act, or immediately after, as if with bloody hands

red hat noun

1. A cardinal
2. A cardinal's hat (award of this to cardinals was discontinued in 1969)
3. A staff officer (milit sl)

redˈhead noun

1. A person with red hair
2. Any of several birds with reddish head, esp the pochard

redˈ-headed adjective

1. Having a red head or red hair
2. Angrily excited (slang)

red heat noun

The temperature at which something is red-hot

redˈ-heeled adjective

red herring noun

1. A herring cured and dried, of reddish appearance
2. A subject introduced to divert discussion or attention as a herring drawn across a track would throw hounds out

redˈ-hot adjective

1. Heated to redness
2. Extremely hot
3. Extreme
4. Marked by extreme emotion of any kind
5. (of information) very recently received (informal)
6. (of a telephone line) very busy with calls (informal)
7. (of the favourite in a sporting contest) considered almost certain to win

red-hot poker noun

The plant Kniphofia or Tritoma

Red Indian noun (informal; offensive)

A Native American, esp of N America (also adjective)

Red Lane see under lane¹

redˈ-lattˈice adjective (Shakespeare)

Savouring of the alehouse (whose lattice was conventionally painted red)

red lead noun

An oxide of lead (Pb₃O₄) of a fine red colour, used in paint-making (also called minium)

redˈleg noun (W Indies)

A derogatory term for a poor white person, esp a descendant of original white settlers

redˈ-legged adjective

redˈ-letter adjective

1. Marked with red letters, as holidays or saints' days in the old calendars
2. Deserving to be so marked, special

red light noun

1. A rear light
2. A danger-signal
3. The red traffic-light, meaning ‘stop’
4. A brothel (informal)

redˈ-lightˈ adjective (informal)

Of or relating to brothels, as in red-light district

red line noun

1. The centre line on an ice-hockey rink
2. On the agenda of a meeting, a line marked in red ink below a point on which one is not prepared to compromise
3. (also red-line issue) a point on which one is not prepared to compromise

redˈ-line transitive verb

1. To mark or cancel (a date, name, etc) by circling or scoring through with a red line
2. To subject to red-lining

redˈ-lining noun (informal; orig US)

The practice of refusing credit or insurance to all those living in an area considered to be a poor financial risk

redˈ-looked adjective (Shakespeare)

Having a red look

redˈ-madˈ adjective (Scot)

Stark mad

red man noun

1. A Native American (archaic)
2. Prob red mercuric sulphide (alchemy)

red meat noun

Dark-coloured meat, eg beef and lamb

red mist noun (informal)

A source of impaired judgement that is said to descend over a person during moments of extreme rage

red mud noun

A type of industrial waste resulting from alumina processing, consisting of silicon oxide, iron oxide, etc

red mullet see under mullet¹

redˈneck noun (derogatory)

1. A poor white farm labourer in SW USA
2. A poorly educated person with intolerant and reactionary opinions

adjective

1. Ignorant, intolerant, narrow-minded
2. Pertaining to, or characteristic of, poor white farm labourers

red panda noun

A panda with chestnut fur and white patches on its face, found in mountain forests in Asia

red pepper see under pepper

red pine noun

Any of various coniferous trees yielding reddish timber

redˈ-plague or redˈ-murrain noun (Shakespeare)

Bubonic plague

redˈpoll noun

1. A name for two birds (lesser and mealy redpoll) related to the linnet
2. An animal of a red breed of polled cattle

redˈ-polled adjective

1. Having a red poll
2. Red and polled

red rag noun

1. The tongue (slang)
2. A cause of infuriation (as red is said to be to a bull)

red rattle noun

Lousewort

red ribbon or red riband noun

The ribbon of the Order of the Bath

red river hog noun

A bush pig (qv under bush¹)

redˈroot noun

A genus (Ceanothus) of the buckthorn family, New Jersey tea

red rot noun

A disease of oaks, etc caused by Polyporus, the wood becoming brown and dry

red route noun

A system of traffic control in large cities, designated by red lines painted along the edge of the road where it is operational

red salmon noun

Any of various types of salmon with red flesh, esp the sockeye salmon

red sanders noun

A papilionaceous tree (Pterocarpus santalinus) of tropical Asia, with heavy dark-red heartwood, used as a dye, etc (see also sandal²)

redsear, redshare, redshire see redshort

red seaweed noun

Any of the red algae, esp one of the genus Polysiphonia

red seed noun

The food of mackerel, small floating crustaceans, etc

red setter noun

An Irish setter

redˈshank noun

1. A sandpiper with red legs
2. A Highlander or an Irishman (informal; derogatory)
3. (red shank) a polygonaceous annual plant with a red stem

red shift noun

A shift of lines in the spectrum towards the red, considered to occur because the source of light is receding (see Doppler principle, etc)

redˈ-shifted adjective

Red Shirt noun (historical)

1. A follower of Garibaldi (1807–82), from his garb
2. A revolutionary or anarchist

redˈshirt noun

(in American collegiate sport) a player who is not selected for a representative team for one year in order to prolong his or her period of eligibility

transitive verb and intransitive verb

To designate or be designated as a redshirt

redˈskin noun (derog sl; offensive)

A Native American

red snapper noun

A fish of the Lutjanidae with reddish colouring, common off the east coast of America

red snow noun

Snow coloured by a microscopic red alga

red spider or red spider mite noun

A spinning mite that infests leaves

red squirrel noun

1. A squirrel of reddish-brown colour (Sciurus vulgaris) native to Europe and Asia, in Britain now rarely found outside the Scottish Highlands
2. A small squirrel (Sciurus hudsonicus) of N America

redˈstart noun

1. (OE steort tail) a European bird (Ruticilla or Phoenicurus) with a conspicuous chestnut-coloured tail
2. An American warbler, superficially similar

redˈstreak noun

An apple with streaked skin

red tape noun

1. The tape used in government offices to bind official documents, etc
2. Rigid formality of intricate official routine
3. Bureaucracy

redˈ-tape adjective

red-tapˈism noun

red-tapˈist noun

red tide noun

A bloom of red dinoflagellates which colours the sea, etc red

redˈtop noun (US)

A kind of bent grass (Agrostis stolonifera)

redˈ-top noun

Any tabloid newspaper whose masthead is printed in red, noted esp for sensationalism and prurience (also adjective)

redˈwater noun

A cattle disease due to a protozoan parasite in the blood, that is transmitted by ticks and destroys the red blood cells, causing red-coloured urine to be passed (also called babesiasis or babesiosis)

red wine noun

Wine coloured by (red) grape skins during fermentation (cf rosé)

redˈwing noun

A thrush with reddish sides below the wings

redˈwood noun

1. A species of Sequoia with reddish wood much used commercially
2. Any wood or tree yielding a red dye

red-woodˈ or (Scot) red-wudˈ adjective

Stark mad

in the red

Overdrawn at the bank, in debt

red out

To experience a red hazy field of vision, etc as a result of aerobatics

reds under the bed(s)

The supposed influence of communist infiltrators, esp during the Cold War

Royal Red Cross

A decoration for nurses, instituted 1883

see red

1. To grow furious
2. To thirst for blood

the Red Planet

Mars