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redd

1 American  
[red] / rɛd /
Or red

verb (used with object)

Northern and Midland U.S.
redd, redded, redding
  1. to put in order; tidy.

    to redd a room for company.

  2. to clear.

    to redd the way.


redd 2 American  
[red] / rɛd /

noun

  1. the spawning area or nest of trout or salmon.


redd 1 British  
/ rɛd /

verb

  1. to bring order to; tidy (up)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. the act or an instance of redding

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
redd 2 British  
/ rɛd /

noun

  1. a hollow in sand or gravel on a river bed, scooped out as a spawning place by salmon, trout, or other fish

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of redd1

before 900; apparently conflation of 2 words: Middle English ( Scots ) reden to clear, clean up (a space, land), Old English gerǣdan to put in order (cognate with Middle Dutch, Middle Low German rêden, reiden; akin to ready ); and Middle English ( Scots ) redden to rid, free, clear, Old English hreddan to save, deliver, rescue (cognate with Old Frisian hredda, German retten )

Origin of redd2

First recorded in 1640–50; origin uncertain


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.

See Examples For:

That’s compared with last year’s 56, and redd counts topping 100 in 2019 and 2020.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 24, 2022

In 2015 and then again in 2017, a single, lonely salmon redd, or nest, was spotted in the gravel.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 7, 2019

A lot would still need to happen before that could occur, Warheit said, from continued survival to sexual maturity, to finding a mate, to successfully digging a redd and reproducing.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2018

Beardslee redd counts rebounded from a dangerous low of 37 before the fishing-rule change to more than 350 by 2007, and have dipped only slightly since then, Brenkman says.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2014

“There, sir, you are redd up and made decent. Now I’ll leave you: I have been travelling these last three days, and I believe I am tired. Good night.”

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Here, on Jan. 9, King George VI, whose own state dining room in Buckingham Palace was still not redded up for peace, would entertain the chief delegates to UNO at a banquet.

From Time Magazine Archive

When I had done this work, and redded up the boat, I looked rather anxiously at Santa, who had been watching me: for I feared the effect this scene of shambles might have upon her.

From Foe-Farrell by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

Everything was all redded up, waitin' for the pews.

From Friendship Village by Zona Gale

I know her not by plumping nuts, By redded hips and haws, Or by the silence hanging sad Under the wind's sere pause.

From Song-Surf by Cale Young Rice

It is time I redded up my house.'

From The Fifth Queen Crowned by Ford Madox Ford

As Iran's young Shah came to power 20,000 Russian troops were camped outside Teheran, redding up their tanks for a triumphal entry into the city.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mrs. Truman was redding up her rambling, 80-year-old home at 219 North Delaware St. in Independence.

From Time Magazine Archive

Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was soon engaged in "redding."

From Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley by Belle Kanaris Maniates

“There!” she said to herself, “it will be a while before they find that, and when they do they can call it Mary Ann’s flighty way of redding up a room.”

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, August 1908 by Various

The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple; not by any means cheaply equipped, but designed to economise the labour of redding and repair just as much as is possible.

From A Modern Utopia by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

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