red ink
Americannoun
-
a financial deficit; business loss.
-
the condition of showing a business loss.
Etymology
Origin of red ink
An Americanism dating back to 1925–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yet even Amik needed 30 years to chew his way out of the billion dollars in red ink that the Montreal Olympics cost.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2026
Quantinuum lost $192.6 million in 2025, compared with red ink of $144.1 million in 2024.
From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026
Screenshots the student then shared appeared to show manual marking in red ink, unlike the green tick marks used in the digital evaluation system.
From BBC • May 28, 2026
The deficit in the 2025 fiscal year was $1.78 trillion, down only slightly from the prior year’s $1.82 trillion in red ink.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026
As I stood debating what to do, my eyes wandered about, and fell upon several placards, in red ink, impaled upon a nearby fence.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
