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
They've redded up the best rooms, and kindled fires and a', to be ready gin he comes soon.
From Up in Ardmuirland by Michael Barrett
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
When dinner was over, and everything "redded up," Hildegarde sent Dame Hartley upstairs to take a nap, and escorted the farmer as far as the barn on his way to the turnip-field.
From Queen Hildegarde by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
The eldest offers her a drawing, either redded or whited on the back, and a point or needle for tracing it on the plate; this drawing represents the design he is going about.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 56, No. 346, August, 1844 by Various
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
It looks very well mixed with water, like redding; but it gives it a glossy appearance to boil the lead in soft soap, with a little water to keep it from burning.
From The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Francis Child
It would be a good thing to have a day off for washing and general "redding up."
From The Emigrant Trail by Geraldine Bonner
You should have seen the idlers aft and the boys forrard, redding up as if all their mothers was expected.
From A Man in the Open by Roger Pocock
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.
