Showing clear evidence of guilt; in the act of wrongdoing.
Etymology:
- 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 goes back to 15th-century Scotland and Scottish law. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe 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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Another Southerner argued that "commerce has no social illusions" and that it would be commerce that would rid the region of "this historic, red-handed, deformed, and swaggering villain."
Submitted on July 10, 2018
Additional definitions for 'red-handed':
| red-handed | In the act of wrongdoing. |
| red-handed | Deadly, bloody. |
| red-handed | With hands that are red. |
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"red-handed." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/red-handed_26378>.
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