# What does ‘caught red-handed’ mean?

To “caught red-handed” means to caught in the act of wrongdoing. Brewer's traces the phrase to old Scottish law, where 'red hand' meant literally being caught with a slain victim's blood on the hand; Sir Walter Scott popularized the phrase in Ivanhoe (1819).

## What it means

- Brewer's traces the phrase to old Scottish law, where 'red hand' meant literally being caught with a slain victim's blood on the hand; Sir Walter Scott popularized the phrase in Ivanhoe (1819).

## Action steps

1. Standard description of catching someone at it.
2. Example: The thief was caught red-handed at the till.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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