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.
Anthropic’s red ink arose mainly from marking up the value of liabilities on its balance sheet, a process that produces losses on the income statement much like marking down an asset’s value does.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
He added that big tariff refunds have been adding to the government’s red ink, but “we won’t have to do that again.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
For example, the word "red" might appear in red ink.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026
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
The first four were wrong, and she slashed through my answers with a broad swathe of bright red ink.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
