Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
red-handed .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having hands red with blood; in the very act, as if with red or bloody hands; -- said of a person taken in the act of homicide; hence, fresh from the commission of crime.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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And now behold him brought in red-hand to judgment, not without a kick or two from the wrathful foot of Amyas Leigh.
Westward Ho! 2007
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He was a buttonman at last, with the pride of a buttonman, his red-hand badge stuck out from his lapel.
At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002
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He was a buttonman at last, with the pride of a buttonman, his red-hand badge stuck out from his lapel.
At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002
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To Pitcairn, compiler of Criminal Trials in Scotland, from indications in whose account of the murder I have been set on the hunt for material concerning it, I am indebted for the information that Jean and her women were taken red-hand.
She Stands Accused 1935
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Small wonder that the burghers found exercise for their clacking tongues from the dawning, for the lovely Jean was taken by the officers ` red-hand, 'as the phrase was, for the murder of her husband.
She Stands Accused 1935
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A person taken red-hand, it would be imagined, would be one found in such circumstances relating to a murder as would leave no doubt as to his or her having "airt and pairt" in the crime.
She Stands Accused 1935
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They themselves could hardly have taken the Lady Warriston red-hand, because in the meantime the actual perpetrator of the murder, a horse-boy named Robert Weir, in the employ of Jean's father, had made good his escape.
She Stands Accused 1935
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For this reason the same authority is at a loss to know whether the prisoners were immediately put to the knowledge of an assize, being taken "red-hand," without the formality of being served a "dittay" (as who should say an indictment), as in ordinary cases, before the magistrates of Edinburgh, or else sent for trial before the baron bailie of the regality of Broughton, in whose jurisdiction Warriston was situated.
She Stands Accused 1935
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"Fer all she's a kind of prisoner right here, caught red-hand doin 'the damnedest she knows to break us in favour of the outfit that pays her?"
The Man in the Twilight Ridgwell Cullum 1905
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Somewhere behind her, in the shelter of the woods, a mid-day camp had been pitched, and the men who had captured her red-hand in the work of their enemies were preparing the, rough food of the trail.
The Man in the Twilight Ridgwell Cullum 1905
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