What does it mean to see red

To become very pissed off by other people's irritating behaviours, especially to an uncontrollable level. Derived from how bulls are allegedly made angry by waving a red flag at them.

I got socks off my Auntie on Christmas, and the food was crap. It made me see red, and the next thing I remember, a tsunami had hit Asia.

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referring to an initial indication of battle frenzy, or homicidal trance, during which survivors have said their entire visual field was "tinged with a pink haze" (from a Civil War account of the Battle of the Wilderness - the "Cornfield" encounter battle). During this frenzy, an attacker's fear transforms into ecstatic fury leading them to kill friend and foe alike, and afterward recalled (if at all) in a fragmented series of vignettes, from a perspective outside the attacker's own body, with a disturbing, dim echo of joy. Usually used in the first person, simply to mean " I became enraged".

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In bullfighting, the matador beckons the bull with a red cape, which agitates the bull, and it charges for the cape.

Seeing red refers to when someone becomes so angered that it controls them, enraging the person.

As soon as he hit her, I was seeing red, and socked him in the nose.

Yeah, Twilight is mostly okay, but there are just a couple things about it that really get me seeing red.

by Kohan December 4, 2009

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Meaning of see red in English

Translations of see red

in Chinese (Traditional)

非常生氣, 暴怒…

in Chinese (Simplified)

非常生气, 暴怒…

in Spanish

sulfurarse, salirse de sus casillas…

in Portuguese

perder a cabeça…

in more languages

in Turkish

in French

in Czech

in Danish

in Indonesian

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in Vietnamese

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in Norwegian

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in Italian

öfkeden çılgına dönmek, tepesi atmak, gözü dönmek…

wściekać się, wściec się…

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To be or become extremely angry: “When Roger realized that he had been duped, he started to see red.”

QUIZ

SHALL WE PLAY A "SHALL" VS. "SHOULD" CHALLENGE?

Should you take this quiz on “shall” versus “should”? It should prove to be a quick challenge!

Question 1 of 6

Which form is commonly used with other verbs to express intention?

Words nearby see red

seepage, seepage pit, seepy, seer, see reason, see red, seeress, seersucker, seesaw, see someone off, see stars

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bridle, fume, seethe, boil, bristle, flare, simmer, smolder, rage, rise, ruffle, spit, swell, burn, ferment, flip, foam, froth, spark, stew

How to use see red in a sentence

  • We see detoxing as a path to transcendence, a symbol of modern urban virtue and self-transformation through abstinence.

  • Former Red Sox star Curt Schilling says his politics are keeping him out of Cooperstown.

  • Harris is unlikely to see a challenge from Villaraigosa, either.

  • We do see that a few European countries have them on the books: Germany, Poland, Italy, Ireland, a couple more.

  • Several times, either because they forgot or they had a technical problem, they connected directly, and we could see them.

  • And to tell the truth, she couldn't help wishing he could see, so he could make the game livelier.

  • I waited three months more, in great impatience, then sent him back to the same post, to see if there might be a reply.

  • You see, I'd always thought of him as the boy whom Great-aunt Lucia described having seen.

  • He shrank, as from some one who inflicted pain as a child, unwittingly, to see what the effect would be.

  • On to Gaba Tepe just in time to see the opening, the climax and the end of the dreaded Turkish counter attack.

Other Idioms and Phrases with see red


Become very angry, as in I saw red when I learned they had not invited Tom and his family. The precise allusion in this term is not known, but it probably refers to the longstanding association of the color red with passion and anger. [Colloquial; c. 1900]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

What's it mean when you see red?

If you see red, you suddenly become very angry.

Is Seeing Red an actual thing?

Angry people really do "see red" where others don't, scientists have shown. And a preference for red over blue may even be an indicator of a more hostile personality.