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.
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
During more than four decades as a private-equity investor, he swung from gushers of profit to sinkholes of red ink.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025
Reality Labs, the division created to power that alternative universe, lost $4.4 billion last quarter, taking its cumulative red ink past $70 billion in less than five years.
From Barron's • Oct. 30, 2025
The label, handwritten in red ink, read "Soundtrack For The Twenty One Bus Home".
From BBC • Oct. 29, 2025
But Mr. Daniels doesn’t cover my papers with red ink like other teachers.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
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.
