red flag

red flag

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

red flag (plural red flags)

1. (figurative) A cue, warning, or alert; a sign or signal that something is wrong.

   Improper formatting is a red flag to look for other problems with the data.

   • 2012, Alan Rappeport, Financial Times, Eli Lilly settles bribery charges

     The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Eli Lilly subsidiaries funnelled millions of dollars to government employees in other countries to secure business and did little to follow up on red flags.

   • 2021 October 5, Ekin Genç, “Investors Spent Millions on ‘Evolved Apes’ NFTs. Then They Got Scammed.”, in Vice‎:

     He added that “there were multiple red flags” in Evolved Apes early on, “but 99% of us were just blinded by the art and the promises and the potential profits we assumed would come.”

2. (idiomatic, US) red rag
3. (rail transport) In the United Kingdom and some other countries, a flag formerly used by a railway guard to warn the driver not to start the train.
4. (politics) A common symbol, usually in the form of a banner, for leftist revolutionary ideologies, especially socialism.

   Synonym: red banner

5. (racing) A signal that the race must be stopped immediately (and possibly restarted).
   • 2005, James A. Vlasich, Horsehide, Pigskin, Oval Tracks and Apple Pie, page 177:

     Typically, a red flag is used when it rains or when the safety of the clean-up crews is in danger because there is too much debris or oil on the track.

   • 2017, Jill Sherman, Racing Personal Watercraft (Sea-Doos), page 37:

     A red flag may be waved after a bad start or if a rider is injured. If you see a red flag, stop immediately and return to the starting line.

   • 2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport‎:

     The race was punctuated by two red flags, the first caused by a pile-up on the pit straight, the second by a high-speed crash for Lance Stroll.

Antonyms

• green flag

Derived terms

• red-flaggy
• red flag in front of a bull
• red flag knowledge
• red flag law
• red flag to a bull
• red flag warning

Translations

a cue, warning, or alert; a sign or signal that something is wrong

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: knipperlicht (nl) n Finnish: punainen lippu, varoitusmerkki French: avertissement (fr) m, signal d'alarme (fr) German: Warnsignal (de) n, Warnhinweis (de) m Hungarian: figyelmeztető jel Spanish: bandera roja f Telugu: ఎర్ర జెండా (erra jeṇḍā)

socialist symbol

Chinese: Cantonese: 紅旗, 红旗 (hung4 kei4) Mandarin: 紅旗／红旗 (zh) (hóngqí) Finnish: punalippu (fi) Hungarian: vörös zászló Japanese: 赤旗 (ja) (akahata) Korean: 적기 (ko) (jeokgi), 붉은기 (bulgeun'gi) Spanish: bandera roja f

Further reading

• “red flag”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “red flag”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• “red flag”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “red flag” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.