red-handed

形容词 adj.
中文释义

英文释义

形容词 adj.
  1. Showing clear evidence of guilt; in the act of wrongdoing. idiomatic
    — to catch red-handed
  2. Deadly, bloody.
    — The demon of fire followed close upon the heels of the unseen fiend of the earth's hidden caverns, and ran red-handed through the metropolis of the West, kindling a thousand unhurt buildings, while the horror-stricken people stood aghast in terror, as helpless to combat this new enemy as they were to check the ravages of the earthquake itself.
  3. With hands that are red from blood. informal
    — The blisters had wept blood for a while, leaving him literally red-handed for the rest of the night.

词形变化

more red-handed comparative most red-handed superlative

词汇关系

衍生词
red-handedly red-handedness
相关词
bang to rights caught with one's hand in the cookie jar in flagrante delicto pink-handed wrongdoing

词源

From red + handed, likening to a murderer with their hands red with the victim's blood. The phrase to be taken with red hand originally meant "to be caught in the act". The use of red hand in this sense dates back to at least the 15th century in medieval Scotland and Scots law. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) contains the first recorded use of taken red-handed for someone apprehended in the act of committing a crime. The expression subsequently became more common as caught red-handed.
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