in red—
1. wearing red clothes:
- A beautiful girl dressed in red entered the room and a wave of admiring gasps and whispers followed her.
2. (coll., also: in red ink) in a bad financial position:
- We’ve got to put forth our best efforts from now till the end of the month, or we’ll be in red on the books.
3. executed or finished in various shades of red:
- The fragments discovered showed linear architectural decoration, executed in red, blue, and white.
in the red— = in red 2:
- If I don’t get some money from somewhere very soon, I shall be in the red.
Cf.: out of the red—(coll.) solvent; operating at a profit:
- Most of the airlines are now out of the red and profitable.