Word.ws English Dictionary

see red

see red verb: to become enraged, angry, or infuriated.

Verb

see red (third-person singular simple present sees red, present participle seeing red, simple past saw red, past participle seen red)

  1. (idiomatic) To become enraged, angry, or infuriated.
    • "So help me, God," he cried, "when I think it all over I go crazy, I see red."1901, Frank Norris, chapter 2, in The Octopus
    • Nothing but his temper, the lack of self-control that made him see red . . ., had kept Jerry out of a world championship.1920, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 22, in The Big-Town Round-Up
  2. (idiomatic) To receive a red card, and be dismissed from the playing field.
    • Diop, sometimes criticized for passive play, saw red once this season when he lashed out at a foe who kicked away his legs.2005 January 26, Rob Hughes, “Soccer: Trio from Senegal is having a ball”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2023, retrieved 14 Nov 2013
    • Kalinic later saw red for a rash tackle on Paul Scharner before Gabriel Tamas was dismissed for bringing down Diouf.2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2025

see red meaning in Malayalam

see red in Malayalam

lose one's temper, become very angry, become enraged
പെട്ടെന്നു ക്ഷോഭിക്കുക, കണ്ണചുവക്കുക, കോപിക്കുക, ക്ഷോഭിക്കുക, ചൊടിക്കുക, ഉഗ്രരോഷം കൊള്ളുക

Forms of see red

third-person singular presentsees red
present participleseeing red
pastsaw red
past participleseen red

Origin of see red

Possibly from the red flag used in some historic armies to signal the imminence of battle, or from the red cloth used to enrage bulls in Spanish bullfighting, or more generally from the idea of red as a colour of warning and danger. Compare corresponding idioms in several European languages: Danish se rødt, German rotsehen, French voir rouge, etc.

Questions about see red

What does see red mean?
See red means to become enraged, angry, or infuriated.
What is see red in Malayalam?
See red in Malayalam is പെട്ടെന്നു ക്ഷോഭിക്കുക, കണ്ണചുവക്കുക, കോപിക്കുക. See See red meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is see red?
See red is a verb.
What is the past tense of see red?
The past tense of see red is saw red.

Words near see red in the dictionary

  1. see over
  2. see past
  3. see past the end of one's nose
  4. see past the tip of one's nose
  5. see reason
  6. see red
  7. see sense
  8. see service
  9. see shit
  10. see someone right
  11. see someone's etchings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: see red (page history and authors); see 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-see red.ogg.

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