red light

See also: redlight

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

red light (plural red lights)

1. A warning light, especially as a traffic signal indicating stop.

   We ran three red lights on the way to the hospital.

   • 1955 April, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 447:

     Paddington [the GWR HQ] saw the red light, however, and the extension to Nantgarw was withdrawn on the G.W.R. agreeing "to lay down the narrow gauge [actually standard gauge as compared to broad gauge] from Didcot over the whole of their system in South Wales."

2. A sign of a brothel.
   • 1978, Sting, “Roxanne”:

     Roxanne, you don't have to put on your red light.

3. (idiomatic) A denial to proceed a ruling out of any possibility.

Synonyms

• (traffic signal for stop): stoplight, stop light

Holonyms

• stoplight, stop light (= traffic light)
• traffic light
• traffic signal

Coordinate terms

• green light
• yellow light

Derived terms

• red light camera
• red-light district
• run a red light

Translations

a warning light, especially as a traffic signal

• Arabic: ضَوْء أَحْمَر m (ḍawʔ ʔaḥmar)
• Catalan: llum vermell (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 紅燈 / 红灯 (hung⁴ dang¹)

  Mandarin: 紅燈 / 红灯 (zh) (hóngdēng)

• French: feu rouge (fr) m
• Georgian: წითელი შუქი (c̣iteli šuki)
• German: Rotlicht (de) n
• Hungarian: piros fény
• Irish: solas dearg m
• Japanese: 赤信号 (ja) (あかしんごう, akashingō)
• Korean: 적신호(赤信號) (ko) (jeoksinho), 빨간불 (ppalganbul)
• Lao: ໄຟແດງ (fai dǣng)
• Norwegian: rødt lys n
• Russian: кра́сный свет m (krásnyj svet)
• Shan: ၾႆးလႅင် (fái lěng), ၽႆးလႅင် (phái lěng)
• Spanish: luz roja f
• Swedish: rödljus (sv) n
• Thai: ไฟแดง (th)
• Turkish: kırmızı ışık
• Vietnamese: đèn đỏ

See also

• 🔴
• 🟡
• 🟢

Anagrams

• third leg

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English red-light district.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛd lajt/

Noun

red light m (plural red lights)

1. (North America) red-light district

   Synonym: quartier chaud