redback en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From red + back.
Meanings
-
(Australia) A venomous spider, Latrodectus hasselti, endemic to Australia.
1988 June 16, Stephanie Pain, Things that go plop in the night, New Scientist, page 78, “If you find a redback, squash it firmly,” advised one guide.
The only truly dangerous Australian spiders are funnelwebs and redbacks but, these days, deaths of people from these spiders seem to be a thing of the past since antivenom is now available.
2012, Peter Macinnis, Australian Backyard Naturalist, page 55:Many a red-back, funnel-web, or other spider has found its resting days at the bottom of a vegemite jar shoved into some dark recess of the laundry.
1996, James Lambert, The Macquarie Book of Slang, Sydney: Macquarie Library, page 254:2005 October, Martha Harrison, Brilliant 10: Marydianne Andrade, Popular Science, page 58, Andrade first encountered the redback— whose lethal bite gives it as infamous a reputation in Australia as the black widow enjoys here in North America—when her grad-school adviser asked to travel to go to Perth to study them.
Easily identified by a red, orange or brownish stripe on the abdomen, Redbacks are responsible for by far the most spider bites in Australia.
2007, Steve Backshall, Steve Backshall's Venom: Poisonous Animals in the Natural World, page 114:
- (US) A brown and white sandpiper (Calidris alpina), native to the Northern Hemisphere; the dunlin.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| red-back | alternative | lexicographic | |
| redbacks | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| red back | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
Synonyms
redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti)
Translations (3)
cmn 紅背蜘蛛 /红背蜘蛛 (Latrodectus hasselti) · de Rotrückenspinne (Latrodectus hasselti) · ja 背赤後家蜘蛛 (Latrodectus hasselti)