red ink
Americannoun
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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
Investors are nonetheless concerned by the widening pool of red ink; wage and benefit costs also soared in the third quarter.
From Barron's • Nov. 11, 2025
In his client’s glam Beverly Hills refuge, he hung a red ink sketch of abstract dress forms.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 30, 2025
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
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.
