red meat

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

red meat (countable and uncountable, plural red meats)

1. Meats such as beef that are dark red in colour when uncooked.
2. (uncountable, politics, idiomatic) Fresh, inspiring, or inflammatory topics or information.
   • 1931, Robert G.M. Neville, "Prima Donnas in the Pulpit," Forum and Century, June (retrieved 10 Apr. 2021):

     To mention Bishop Manning's name in a city room is equivalent to telling the city editor that a rip-roaring good story is brewing. A bishop for almost ten years, he has provided the hungry presses of New York with more red meat than Al Capone, Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Sunday, 'Legs' Diamond, Albert Einstein, Charles Augusts Lindbergh, Texas Guinan, or Nicholas Murray Butler.

   • 1950, Drew Pearson, Washington Merry-Go-Round, “Trust-Buster Truman”, May 1, 1950 (syndicated, e.g., Prescott Evening Courier, May 1, 1950, p. 4):

     “Keep it up,” urged Truman. “You’re doing a great job for the country and, incidentally, providing me with red meat for campaign speeches.”

   • 1992 October 27, John Leo, “Hill's Potential Stunted By Gender-Focused Politics”, in Seattle Times, retrieved 7 Jan. 2010:

     Given the fiery tone of the conference, Anita Hill's speech must have come as a disappointment. She threw no red meat to the audience.

   • 1999 May 21, Alex Brummer, “Sir Peter throws the City meat to chew on”, in guardian.co.uk, retrieved 7 Jan. 2010:

     The decision to press ahead with the rationalisation, while there is still uncertainty about the bank's strategic direction, gives the City some red meat to chew on.

   • 2002 July 10, Richard W. Stevenson, “Bush's Dance: Moral Outrage Without Pain to Loyalists”, in New York Times, retrieved 7 Jan. 2010:

     On environmental regulation, taxes and other topics that are red meat to economic conservatives, Mr. Bush has delivered.

   • 2012 August 22, Andy Beckett, “Britannia Unchained: the rise of the new Tory right”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The passage, red meat for phone-ins and columnists ever since, argued less politely for an improvement in our national work ethic: […]

   • 2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

     Sunak seems so scared of his party's swivel-eyed right wing that he has been panicked into focusing all new legislation on perceived 'red meat' issues which he hopes the Tory right will support.

Usage notes

• See white meat: usage notes for discussion of white meat/red meat distinction.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “meats that are dark red when uncooked”): white meat
• (antonym(s) of “fresh, inspiring, or inflammatory topics or information”): same old same old, same old story

Derived terms

• red meat radish

Translations

meat

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 紅肉／红肉 (zh) (hóngròu)

• Danish: rødt kød n
• Dutch: rood vlees n
• Finnish: punainen liha
• French: viande rouge (fr) f
• Hebrew: בָּשָֹר אָדֹם (he) m (basár adóm)
• Irish: feoil dhearg f, feoil fhola f
• Italian: carne rossa f
• Japanese: 赤肉 (ja) (あかにく, akaniku)
• Polish: czerwone mięso (pl) n
• Portuguese: carne vermelha (pt) f
• Russian: кра́сное мя́со (ru) n (krásnoje mjáso)
• Spanish: carne roja f
• Thai: เนื้อแดง (nʉ́ʉa-dɛɛng)
• Turkish: kırmızı et

Anagrams

• red team, retamed, remated, red-team