Word.ws English Dictionary

putting on the red light

putting on the red light is the present participle and gerund of put on the red light.

Meaning of put on the red light

Verb

put on the red light (third-person singular simple present puts on the red light, present participle putting on the red light, simple past and past participle put on the red light)

  1. (idiomatic) To advertise oneself as a prostitute.
    • Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light / Those days are over / You don't have to sell your body to the night1978, “Roxanne”, performed by The Police

Questions about putting on the red light

What is putting on the red light the present participle and gerund of?
Putting on the red light is the present participle and gerund of put on the red light.

Words near putting on the red light in the dictionary

  1. putting on the block
  2. putting on the dog
  3. putting on the kibosh
  4. putting on the map
  5. putting on the pounds
  6. putting on the red light
  7. putting on the ritz
  8. putting on the spot
  9. putting one across
  10. putting one foot in front of the other
  11. putting one in hospital

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting on the red light (page history and authors); put on the red light (page history and authors). 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.

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