Word.ws English Dictionary

redd

/ɹɛd/

redd verb: to free from entanglement. Also the simple past and past participle of rede.

Verb

redd (third-person singular simple present redds, present participle redding, simple past and past participle redd or redded)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) To free from entanglement.
  2. (dialectal, obsolete) To free from embarrassment.
  3. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) To fix boundaries.
  4. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) To comb hair.
  5. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) To separate combatants.
  6. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) To settle, usually a quarrel.
  7. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) To tidy up, clear away.
  8. (Pennsylvania, dialectal, obsolete) To clean, tidy up, to put in order.
    • I've got to redd the place before your mother gets back.

Noun

redd (plural redds)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) A spawning nest made by a fish.
    • A female chinook salmon digs her redd, or nest, prior to spawning in Oregon's John Day River.2007, Michael Klesius, Fishes' Riches, National Geographic (March 2007), 32

Proper noun capitalized: Redd

Redd

  1. A surname.

Also used as

redd is also the simple past and past participle of rede.

redd is also the simple past and past participle of read.

Forms of redd

Verb
third-person singular presentredds
present participleredding
past participleredd
pastredd
past participleredded
pastredded
alternative formred
Noun
pluralredds

Origin of redd

Fusion of Middle English reden (“to clean up, to clear”) and redden (“to save, rescue, deliver, rid, free, clear”). The former is from Old English ġerǣdan (“to put in order, arrange, prepare”), from Proto-West Germanic *garaidijan, from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaną (“to arrange”); the latter, from Old English hreddan (“to save, deliver, recover, rescue”), from Proto-West Germanic *hraddjan, from Proto-Germanic *hradjaną. More at rid and ready. The Scottish and Northern English senses (especially 3.5 “tidy up, clear away”) are likely from Old Norse ryðja (“to clear, free, empty”), from Proto-Germanic *rudjaną, having conflated with the native word reden (see above); if so, that would make them related to Danish and Norwegian Bokmål rydde (“to clear, tidy”). The Pennsylvania (Dutch English) sense is from Middle Low German redden, cognate with Dutch redden (“to save, rescue”), both ultimately also from Proto-Germanic *hradjaną (“to loosen, set free, save”). The meaning is clearly historically conflated and related to the native English word, however their exact origin and relationship are unclear.

Origin obscure, possibly from the act of the fish scooping, clearing out a spawning place, see redd above.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from redd

Questions about redd

What does redd mean?
Redd means to free from entanglement.
What part of speech is redd?
Redd can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce redd?
Redd is pronounced /ɹɛd/.
What is the past tense of redd?
The past tense of redd is redd.

Words near redd in the dictionary

  1. redcurrant
  2. redcurrant jellies
  3. redcurrant jelly
  4. redcurrants
  5. redcurranty
  6. redd
  7. redd up
  8. reddans
  9. Reddaway
  10. redded
  11. redded up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: redd (page history and authors); Redd (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-redd.wav.

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