red-handed

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play
• CMU ARPABET: R EH1 D HH AE1 N D IH0 D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  Play

From red + handed, likening to a murderer with their hands red with the victim's blood. The phrase to be taken with red hand originally meant "to be caught in the act". The use of red hand in this sense dates back to at least the 15th century in medieval Scotland and Scots law. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) contains the first recorded use of taken red-handed for someone apprehended in the act of committing a crime. The expression subsequently became more common as caught red-handed.

45 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: مُتَلَبَّس (mutalabbas) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Arabic: جُرْم مَشْهُود (jurm mašhūd) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Bulgarian: на местопрестъплението (na mestoprestǎplenieto) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 正著 — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 正着 (zhèngzháo) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 當場 /当场 (dāngchǎng) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 現行犯 /现行犯 (xiànxíngfàn) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 雙手沾滿鮮血 /双手沾满鲜血 (shuāng shǒu zhān mǎn xiānxiě) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Chinese Mandarin: 正在作案 (zhèngzài zuò'àn) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Czech: při činu — in the act of wrongdoing
• Danish: på fersk gerning — in the act of wrongdoing
• Dutch: op heterdaad (betrapt) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Esperanto: ĉe krimo — in the act of wrongdoing
• Esperanto: en loko de krimo — in the act of wrongdoing
• Finnish: rysän päältä — in the act of wrongdoing
• French: la main dans le sac — in the act of wrongdoing
• French: en flagrant délit — in the act of wrongdoing
• German: in flagranti (ertappt) — in the act of wrongdoing
• German: auf frischer Tat (ertappt) — in the act of wrongdoing
• German: bei der Tat — in the act of wrongdoing
• Italian: con le mani nel sacco — in the act of wrongdoing
• Italian: in flagranza — in the act of wrongdoing
• Japanese: 現行犯 (genkōhan) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Korean: 현행범 (hyeonhaengbeom) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Northern Kurdish: li ser sûc girtin — in the act of wrongdoing
• Northern Kurdish: di ser de girtin — in the act of wrongdoing
• Latin: in flagrante delicto — in the act of wrongdoing
• Norwegian Bokmål: på fersk gjerning — in the act of wrongdoing
• Norwegian Bokmål: på fersken — in the act of wrongdoing
• Norwegian Nynorsk: på fersk gjerning — in the act of wrongdoing
• Norwegian Nynorsk: på fersken — in the act of wrongdoing
• Polish: na gorącym uczynku — in the act of wrongdoing
• Portuguese: em flagrante — in the act of wrongdoing
• Portuguese: com a boca na botija — in the act of wrongdoing
• Portuguese: com a mão na massa — in the act of wrongdoing
• Romanian: cu mâna în sac — in the act of wrongdoing
• Russian: на ме́сте преступле́ния (na méste prestuplénija) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Russian: с поли́чным (s políčnym) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Swedish: med fingrarna i syltburken — in the act of wrongdoing
• Swedish: på bar gärning — in the act of wrongdoing
• Thai: คาหนังคาเขา (kaa-nǎng-kaa-kǎo) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Thai: จะจะ (jà-jà) — in the act of wrongdoing
• Turkish: cürmü meşhut — in the act of wrongdoing
• Turkish: suçüstü — in the act of wrongdoing
• Turkish: meşhut suç — in the act of wrongdoing