Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective idiomatic (accounting) Having net losses; in
debt .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From the standard accounting practice of using red ink to denote negative values, especially a net loss. The first known written use of the phrase is from the "Wise-crack dictionary" (1926) by George H. Maines and Bruce Grant.
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