red-light district
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of red-light district
First recorded in 1890–95; allegedly so called because brothels displayed red lights
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.
He worked as a steward on the QE2 liner and later ran The Ferry Boat pub in Norwich's red-light district.
From BBC • Feb. 2, 2026
Ahmad’s extraordinarily accomplished first novel revolves around Faraz Ali, born to a prostitute in Mohalla, Lahore, Pakistan’s red-light district.
From Washington Post • Jun. 7, 2022
In this quietly stunning debut novel, a midlevel police officer in Lahore, Pakistan, is sent to cover up a girl’s murder in the red-light district where he was born.
From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2022
It was Kirchherr’s boyfriend, Klaus Voormann, who insisted that her and their friend, Jürgen Vollmer, came with him to the spectacularly seedy Kaiserkeller in Hamburg’s red-light district on an October evening in 1960.
From The Guardian • May 19, 2020
Short, impressionistic chapters flit between the fictional town of Ventor, Georgia; boho New York City; San Francisco’s red-light district; the coast of Florida; and a grad-school program in Maryland.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 1, 2019
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.
