red-handed, a.
1. In the very act of crime, having the evidences of guilt still upon the person, esp. in phr. to take, or be taken, redhanded.
App. first in Scott: the older Sc. phrase was redhand.
| 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxv, I did but tie one fellow, who was taken redhanded and in the fact, to the horns of a wild stag. 1857 G. Lawrence Guy Liv. iv, The fact of the property being found in our possession constituted a flagrans delictum—we were caught ‘red-handed’. 1893 Earl Dunmore Pamirs I. 306 A notorious thief was caught red-handed in the act of breaking open a lock. |
b. Fresh from the commission of murder or homicide; having the hands red with blood.
| 1861 Reynolds' Newsp. 24 Nov., Call a drum-head court⁓martial, and hang the murderer red-handed! 1885 M. Peacock in Academy 10 Oct. 239/3 When Abel in thine arms lay dead, And Cain red-handed turned and fled. |
| fig. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 175 While Hamilcar was returning redhanded from his desperate victory. |
c. That sheds or has shed blood; bloody, sanguinary, violent.
| 1879 Tourgee Fool's Err. (1883) 16 He had hitherto been..a red-handed slayer of men! 1894 Crockett Raiders (ed. 3) 38 The evil gypsies of the hill—red-handed men. |
2. Having red hands.
a. As the distinctive epithet of certain monkeys.
| 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 53 M. rufimanus,..The Red-handed Howler. Fur black; hands red. 1882 Proc. Zool. Soc. App. 789 Red-handed Tamarin. |
b. Applied to a species of orchis.
| 1805 Duncumb Agric. Hereford 172 The northern parts of the county produce the following:..Orchis conopsia, Red-handed Orchis. |