red-handedness

Noun

red-handedness (uncountable)

1. The condition of being caught with clear evidence of guilt.
   • If we look at it in this way, the requirement of red-handedness sinks somewhat into the background, and the expression acquires a rather different nuance: furtum manifestum means a clearly-proven theft.1966, John Maurice Kelly, Roman litigation, page 142
   • Don't ask me why, because there was no diminishment of my red-handedness when I threw the evidence to the floor.2003, Christian M. Fletcher, The Chronicles of a Cynic, →ISBN, page 86
2. Bloodiness; murderousness.
   • The thing which seems least like what we now call England is the red-handedness of religious persecution, and the odd manner in which spiritual and secular personages jumble their functions and thwart each other on exactly the same principles, though on exactly opposite sides of the battle.1869, William Brighty Rands, Chaucer's England - Volume 1, page 55
   • War has been made splendid in all its red-handedness chiefly because it trains to teamwork and develops devotion to the group.1914, Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, page 169
3. The condition of having red hands.
   • I must fable my own birth: Though you both were Very much in love under Boston's stars, Among the maples' red-handedness, Caught at the bottom of an October sky1979, Pamela Stewart, Cascades, page 27