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reds

[red]

Origin

noun

any of various colors resembling the color of blood; the primary color at one extreme end of the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 610 and 780 nm.

something red.

(often initial capital letter) a radical leftist in politics, especially a communist.

Informal. red light (def. 1).

Informal. red wine: a glass of red.

EXPAND

Also called red devil, red bird. Slang. a capsule of the drug secobarbital, usually red in color.

COLLAPSE

adjective

of the color red.

having distinctive areas or markings of red: a red robin.

of or indicating a state of financial loss or indebtedness: the red column in the ledger.

10.

radically left politically.

11.

(often initial capital letter) communist.

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12.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of North American Indian peoples: no longer in technical use.

COLLAPSE

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Reds is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Idioms

13.

in the red, operating at a loss or being in debt (opposed to in the black): The newspaper strike put many businesses in the red.

14.

paint the town red. paint (def. 16).

15.

see red, Informal. to become very angry; become enraged: Snobs make her see red.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English red, Old English rēad; cognate with German rot, Dutch rood, Old Norse raudhr, Latin rūfus, ruber, Greek erythrós; see rubella, rufescent, erythro-

Related forms

red·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object), red, red·ding.

redd¹.

noun

a male or female given name.

Link To reds

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

red

"Bolshevik," 1917, from red (1), the color they adopted for themselves. Association in Europe of red with revolutionary politics (on notion of blood and violence) is from at least 1297, but got a boost 1793 with adoption of the red Phrygian cap (Fr. bonnet rouge) as symbol of

EXPAND

the Fr. Revolution. First specific political reference in Eng. was 1848 (adj.), in news reports of the Second French Republic (a.k.a. Red Republic). The noun meaning "radical, communist" is from 1851.

COLLAPSE

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"And what was the theory at the bottom of all these astounding proceedings? So far as it can be reduced to comprehensible terms it was much less a theory than a fear—a shivering, idiotic, discreditable fear of a mere banshee—an overpowering, paralyzing dread that some extra-eloquent Red, permitted to emit his balderdash unwhipped, might eventually convert a couple of courageous men, and that the courageous men, filled with indignation against the plutocracy, might take to the highroad, burn down a nail-factory or two, and slit the throat of some virtuous profiteer. In order to lay his fear, in order to ease the jangled nerves of the American successors to the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns, all the constitutional guarantees of the citizen were suspended, the statute-books were burdened with laws that surpass anything heard of in the Austria of Maria Theresa, the country was handed over to a frenzied mob of detectives, informers and agents provocateursand the Reds departed laughing loudly, and were hailed by the Bolsheviki as innocents escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane."

-H.L. Mencken

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