redd
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
to put in order; tidy.
to redd a room for company.
-
to clear.
to redd the way.
noun
verb
noun
noun
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
They tumbled out and redded up the place in a hurry, folding away the rugs and linen—which Bill, with his grimed fingers, did not dare to touch—and stowing them as he directed.
From True Tilda by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
But of all the joyous hours, none was more welcome to the child than that after the simple supper was cleared away and the room "redded up."
From Captain January by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
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
She did not lie there looking at the sparrows or at Leeby redding up the house, and I hardly ever heard her complain.
From A Window in Thrums by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
Porteous was a philologist second to none in these realms, and was on intimate terms of acquaintanceship with the famous Veitch, who gave such a redding up to the Greek verbs.
From Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Daniel Turner Holmes
She was mending or weaving nets, she was redding up her own home.
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
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.
