Dictionary

red shirt en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of redshirt (“expendable minor character”).
   alt of redshirt
   • Trekkers knew that if a "red shirt" — a non-regular cast member garbed in a red Starfleet tunic — was assigned to a landing party with Captain Kirk, the odds were very much against him or her returning from that mission. "Red shirts" were the expendable members of the crew, and viewers were never really surprised if the poor innocents were snuffed by the episode's end. 2000, Terry J. Erdmann, Paula M. Block, Deep Space Nine Companion, →ISBN, page 44:
   • But Howie was only a pawn in this war, a foot soldier, a red shirt. 2007, Dana Stabenow, A Deeper Sleep, →ISBN, page 174:
   • He, however, was nothing more than another red shirt. Michael still tried to imagine what was running through that kid's mind as he charged head long into the mob, his shouts of glory quickly turning to screams of terror as they ripped him apart. 2014, Mikhail Lerma, Z-Plan 2: Red Tides, →ISBN:
2. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of redshirt (“sailor who handles ordnance”).
   alt of redshirt
   • Red shirts deal with weapons and crash and salvage operations. 1988, The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation - Volume 31, Part 2, page 47:
   • As I exited the COD, there was a “red shirt” with GM stenciled in big black letters on the front and back of his shirt there to greet me, loan me a set of Mickey Mouse Ears and lend a hand with my gear. 2016, Robert Baker, The Flight of the Sparrow, →ISBN:
   • Gervais was a red shirt, a member of the night ordnance crew, who wore red for easy visual identification of ordnance handlers. 2001, Wynn F. Foster, Fire on the Hangar Deck: Ordeal of the Oriskany, page 7:
3. (alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Red Shirt (“member of the UDD”).
   alt of Red Shirt
   • During the rule of yellow shirts the Thai stance towards the Preah Vihear temple was more nationalist, while the red shirts, whose leaders enjoyed close ties with Camboida's leaders, were also the initiators of cooperative mechanisms and were developing warm ties with Cambodia. 2016, Alfred Gerstl, Mária Strašáková, Unresolved Border, Land and Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia, →ISBN:
   • As he got near the MBK center at Siam, he noticed about a dozen red shirt guards standing outside of a number of sandbags and a wooden fence area which appeeared to be an entrance. 2017, Tom Moon Mullins, I sought refuge with the Red Shirts, →ISBN, page 15:
   • Well, it was not too easy today, because the red shirts were staging a big rally in Bangkok this weekend. 2014, JJ Stone, Bungee Love, →ISBN, page 283:
4. (alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Red Shirt (“follower of Garibaldi”).
   alt of Red Shirt
   • The “red shirts” led by Guiseppe Garibaldi had already freed Sicily. 2003, Richard Morris, The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table, →ISBN:
   • Are our Garibaldians, the red shirts, there? 1865, Alberto Mario, The Red Shirt: Episodes, page 253:
   • In 1860, he and his 1,000 'red shirts' took Sicily. 2013, Jacob F. Field, We Shall Fight on the Beaches: The Speeches That Inspired History, →ISBN:
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see red, shirt.

Forms