Word.ws English Dictionary

in the red

in the red prepositional phrase: having net losses; in debt.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Having net losses; in debt.
    • The figures are going to be in the red this year.
    Synonyms:
    in the hole

in the red meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Thai and Vietnamese

in the red in Bengali

নিট লোকসান থাকা, ঋণে থাকা

in the red in Malayalam

in debt, overdrawn, in debit
വൻതുക കടമുള്ള, അനുവദനീയമായതിൽ കൂടുതൽ തുക എടുത്ത, കടബാദ്ധ്യതകളുള്ള, നഷ്ടത്തിലായ, കടക്കെണിയിലായ, ആസ്തിയേക്കാൾ ബാദ്ധ്യത കൂടുതലുള്ള

in the red in Thai

in debt
ติดหนี้ dtìt nêe, เป็นหนี้ bpen nêe

in the red in Vietnamese

in debt
mắc nợ

Synonyms of in the red

Antonyms

Origin of in the red

From the standard accounting practice of using red ink to denote negative values, especially a net loss. The first known written use of the phrase is from the "Wise-crack dictionary" (1926) by George H. Maines and Bruce Grant.http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/202000.html

Questions about in the red

What does in the red mean?
In the red means having net losses; in debt.
What is in the red in Bengali?
In the red in Bengali is নিট লোকসান থাকা, ঋণে থাকা. See In the red meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is in the red?
In the red is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the red in the dictionary

  1. in the pudding club
  2. in the racket
  3. in the rattle
  4. in the raw
  5. in the rear with the gear
  6. in the red
  7. in the refrigerator
  8. in the region of
  9. in the reign of Queen Dick
  10. in the right
  11. in the right place at the right time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the red (page history and authors); in the red (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); in the red (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-in the red.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-in the red.wav.

Cite this entry: “in the red.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_red. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.