| 释义 |
red light
1. A warning light, esp. one instructing traffic to stop. Hence fig., a sign of danger; a warning; a signal to pause or desist in some course of action or thought; esp. in phr. to see the (or a) red light.
1849C. Brontë Shirley III. iii. 44 He is one of Mrs. Yorke's warning-examples—one of the blood-red lights she hangs out to scare young ladies from matrimony. 1862Anon. Railway Traveller's Handy Bk. 99 Danger, to stop, is shown by a red light fixed upon a pole being turned full upon the line... Caution, to go slowly, is shown..by a green light. All right, to go on,..by a white light. c1864Brough & Halliday in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) IV. 239 There, that's our signal—that's the red light on our railway, and means ‘danger’. 1907A. Quiller-Couch Major Vigoureux xxiii. 234, I fancy the man has begun to see the red light. 1927Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 9/3 Men see a red light when they find that things they have called their own—like intelligence—may be given to women too. 1931E. Wallace On Spot x. 120 If Con had been better acquainted with Tony he would have seen the red light. 1938Mag. Digest Jan. 66 (heading) A red light for the pugnacious. 1946Sun (Baltimore) 29 Jan. 11/1 What in fact the Associated Press has done is to put up the red light. 1948G. V. Galwey Lift & Drop vii. 190 Roberts' carelessness in getting pinched showed them the red light and they ceased operations. 1958Spectator 28 Feb. 251/1 The French Government may see the red light. 1974E. Ambler Dr. Frigo ii. 97 He's hit by a drunk driver running a red light and killed. 1977New Yorker 24 Oct. 52/3 He drove through a red light in Pennsylvania and..was picked up by police.
2. The sign of a brothel. Freq. attrib., as red light district, etc.
1900N.Y. Jrnl. Nov. 19 (caption) Children of the ‘red light district’. 1900Boston Transcript 4 Dec. 14/3 The disorderly houses in the ‘red-light’ district were all closed last night. 1925H. L. Foster Trop. Tramp with Tourists 276, I was amazed to find that about two thirds of every city consisted of red-light district. 1928Daily Express 26 Sept. 11/1 It is further asserted that he has elevated the ‘red light’ houses to the level of a business in New York. 1947[see geisha]. 1951E. Paul Springtime in Paris xi. 205 Strangers in cities of Spain or Italy, who want to locate the red-light district, are advised to seek a point equidistant between the principal seminary and the main barracks of the Guardia Civil. 1962Coast to Coast 1961–62 131 Harry was rough, tough and hairy, and he knew where to find a swy game, a sly-grog joint or a red light in every capital city. 1967O. Wynd Walk Softly vi. 91 He is reported to have sizeable interests in the Naboshima Red Light district, and many bars. 1973Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 17 June 16/3 At one time there were about 2,000 men in the camp, and except for the red-light girls at the other end of town, only two women. 1978Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. 11a/2 Besides, she said, a legal red-light district would probably be bad for business. 1981Observer 2 May 3/4 The trial will seem far removed from the red-light districts and suburbs where Sutcliffe struck.
3. A children's game in which one participant turns his back on the others, who try to sneak up on him without being seen moving.
1953P. G. Brewster Amer. Nonsinging Games 35 Red Light (Mississippi). The player who is ‘It’ counts rapidly to ten and then cries, ‘Red Light!’..At the cry of ‘Red Light!’ each must stop and hold the position in which he was when he heard it. 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games vi. 195 Other names [for ‘Peep behind the Curtain’] include..‘Red Light’ (Liverpool, Blackburn, Spennymoor, Peterborough, Helensburgh, and Edmonton, Alberta), [etc.]. 1975New Yorker 10 Mar. 38/1 Evenings, screen doors bang behind children rushing out to meet each other for hide-and-seek, giant steps, dead dog, red light.
Hence red-ˈlighter, a prostitute.
1913A. Stringer Shadow 37 He could hobnob with bar⁓tenders and red-lighters. |
