redd
Pluralredds
Pluralredds
- 1A nest dug into riverbed gravel where a fish deposits and buries its eggs.
Female trout sweep out a redd in clean gravel before spawning.
Biologists counted dozens of redds along the spawning stream.
Note
No one is sure where this word comes from. It may come from the clearing sense of the verb, since the fish scoops out a place to spawn, much as one would clear away cluttered ground. The female does the digging. Writers often explain the word on first use, as Michael Klesius does in National Geographic (2007): "her redd, or nest." The plural is redds.
- 2To clean something and set it in order, putting each object back in its proper place.
She redd the cluttered desk and filed every loose paper.
Could you redd these shelves before we leave?
Similartidy, clean, organize, straighten
Note
Pennsylvania's word for tidying probably does not continue the old verb at all. Its modern use looks like a back-formation from ready, as if to redd a room were to make it ready. Old Norse ryðja and Dutch redden stand behind the older form. It takes a direct object and has a homely ring: you redd the place before company arrives.
- 3To tidy a space by clearing away clutter and mess.
The crew redd the campsite before hiking out at dawn.
Everyone pitched in to redd after the celebration.
Note
This is the everyday tidying verb of Scotland and Northern England, and it comes from the ġerǣdan line meaning "to put in order." It looks identical to the Pennsylvania cleaning verb, but that one has a separate history. Its older form goes back to Old Norse ryðja, and its modern use probably comes from ready.
- 4To settle a dispute, especially a quarrel between people.
The chief was called upon to redd the long feud between the clans.
He redd the argument with a few calm words.
Note
Its usual object is a quarrel, a feud or a dispute. The picture is of clearing a tangle between people rather than in a net. Choose it for Scottish or Northern English color; in general English, settle or resolve does the same job without sounding regional.
- 5To separate people who are fighting.
Bystanders moved quickly to redd the combatants outside the tavern.
He redd the scuffling men and held them apart.
Note
In this sense the clearing happens between bodies: to redd a fight is to step between the fighters and part them. It pairs naturally with the settling sense. One ends the blows, and the other ends the quarrel behind them.
- 6To comb the hair until it lies smooth.
The maid redd the child's hair into neat braids.
Before church, she would redd her hair carefully.
Note
Combing counts as clearing here: the comb works through knots the way the disentangling sense once worked through nets, and the regional speech keeps it for hair. The past forms vary, and both are acceptable: she redd her hair, or she redded it.
- 7To fix or mark out the boundaries of land.
The two estates hired men to redd the disputed border.
Elders gathered to redd the village limits after the flood changed the river's course.
Similardemarcate, delimit, mark
Note
Several uses of the verb belong to Scotland and Northern England, and they all rest on the old idea of putting things in order, from Old English ġerǣdan, "to arrange." Redding a boundary means settling where one piece of land ends and the next begins. That sits close to the quarrel-settling sense, because fixing a line between neighbors is one way of ending a dispute.
- 8Past tense of rede. Archaic.
Note
Rede is an old verb of counsel. To rede someone was to advise them, and to rede a riddle or a dream was to interpret it. Redd serves as both its past tense and its past participle: she redd him, she had redd the dream. Rede itself survives only as archaic or dialect usage in the UK, so this form suits historical or deliberately antique writing.
- 9Past tense of read. An obsolete spelling.
Note
This obsolete spelling gave the past of read its own shape on the page, and it appears in The Works of John Knox (1841). Modern English writes both tenses as read. In older texts, take care not to confuse it with the past of rede. There redd means "advised," not "read," and only the context tells the two apart.
- 10To loosen and free something that has become tangled or knotted.
Fishermen would redd their nets each morning before setting out.
The shepherd redd the lamb's wool from the thorns.
Note
Two Middle English verbs fused to make this word. Redden meant "to rescue, rid, free" and comes from Old English hreddan. Reden meant "to clean up, clear" and comes from Old English ġerǣdan, "to put in order." Freeing a knotted net draws on both ideas at once: rescue and clearing. The sense is obsolete, so in modern prose disentangle does this work.
- 11To free someone from an embarrassing or shameful situation.
A clever excuse redd the young clerk from public disgrace.
Only a quick apology could redd them from so awkward a scene.
Note
The rescuing side of the word is turned here on people rather than things. Old English hreddan meant "to save, deliver," and this sense keeps the idea of getting someone out of a fix. Like the disentangling sense, it is obsolete. It belongs to historical reading, and today one is spared or rescued from embarrassment instead.
Showing meanings only.
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Origins
This is a fusion of two Middle English verbs: redden ('to save, rescue, rid, clear'), from Old English hreddan and Proto-Germanic *hradjaną, and reden ('to clean up, clear'), from Old English ġerǣdan ('to put in order, arrange'), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaną ('to arrange'). Related to rid and ready.
From Middle English, from Old Norse ryðja and Middle Low German (compare Dutch redden); in modern use, however, it is probably actually a back-formation from ready.
The origin is obscure, possibly from the act of the fish scooping out and clearing a spawning place.
From the archaic verb rede or read.