red

Etymology 1

From Middle English red, from Old English rēad, from Proto-West Germanic *raud, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rowdʰós, from the root *h₁rewdʰ-. Cognates See also West Frisian read, Low German root, rod, Dutch rood, German rot, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål rød, Norwegian Nynorsk raud; also Welsh rhudd, Latin ruber, rufus, Tocharian A rtär, Tocharian B ratre, Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós), Albanian pruth (“redhead”), Russian ру́дый (rúdyj) ("red", "redhaired"). Czech rudý, Lithuanian raúdas, Serbo-Croatian riđ ("reddish", "red"), Avestan 𐬭𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬛𐬌𐬙𐬀 (raoidita), Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá, “red, bloody”).

adj

1. Having red as its color.
   The girl wore a red skirt.
   The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows. 29 July 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, “I: A Long-Expected Party”, in The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings; 1)
2. (of hair) Having an orange-brown or orange-blond colour; ginger.
   Her hair had red highlights.
3. (of the skin) With a red hue due to embarrassment or sunburn.
   [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. (of a dog or its coat) Having a brown color.
5. (card games, of a card) Of 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. (politics, often capitalized) Supportive of, related to, or dominated by a political party or movement represented by the color red:
   1. Left-wing parties and movements, chiefly socialist or communist, including the U.K. Labour party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
      "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
      the red-black grand coalition in Germany
   2. (US politics) The U.S. Republican Party.
      a red state
      a red Congress
7. (chiefly derogatory, offensive) Amerind; relating to Amerindians or First Nations
   All my friends are Indians / All my friends are brown and red 1994, Soundgarden, Spoonman
8. (astronomy) Of the lower-frequency region of the (typically visible) part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
9. (particle physics) Having a color charge of red.

noun

1. (countable and uncountable) Any of a range of colours having the longest wavelengths, 670 nm, of the visible spectrum; a primary additive colour for transmitted light: the colour obtained by subtracting green and blue from white light using magenta and yellow filters; the colour of blood, ripe strawberries, etc.
   red:
   Red can be seen as hot or angry.
2. (countable) A revolutionary socialist or (most commonly) a Communist; (usually capitalized) a Bolshevik, a supporter of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War.
   Coordinate term: pinko
3. (countable, snooker">snooker) One of the 15 red balls used in snooker">snooker, distinguished from the colours.
4. (countable and uncountable) Red wine.
   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 (lyrics and music), “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, in The Stranger
   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
   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. (countable) Any of several varieties of ale which are brewed with red or kilned malt, giving the beer a red colour.
   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. 2012-06-05, Howard Stelzer, Beer Cocktails: 50 Superbly Crafted Cocktails that Liven Up Your Lagers and Ales, Harvard Common Press
   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. 2016-04-01, Lonely Planet, Helena Smith, Andy Symington, Donna Wheeler, Lonely Planet Belgium & Luxembourg, Lonely Planet
6. (countable, informal, Australia) A red kangaroo.
7. (countable, informal, UK, birdwatching) A redshank.
8. (derogatory, offensive) An American Indian.
9. (slang) The 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
   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, page 285
10. (informal) A 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 (lyrics and music), “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night”, in The Heart of Saturday Night
11. (Ireland, UK, beverages, informal) Red lemonade
12. (particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.
13. (US, colloquial, uncountable) Chili 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. (informal) The 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. (slang, uncountable) Tomato 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

Etymology 2

From the archaic verb rede.

verb

1. (archaic) simple past and past participle of rede

Etymology 3

verb

1. Alternative spelling of redd