redback

A venomous spider, Latrodectus hasselti, endemic to Australia.

Noun Australia

  1. A venomous spider, Latrodectus hasselti, endemic to Australia.
    • 1988 June 16, Stephanie Pain, Things that go plop in the night, New Scientist, page 78, “If you find a redback, squash it firmly,” advised one guide.
    • Many a red-back, funnel-web, or other spider has found its resting days at the bottom of a vegemite jar shoved into some dark recess of the laundry. - 1996, James Lambert, The Macquarie Book of Slang, Sydney: Macquarie...
    • 2005 October, Martha Harrison, Brilliant 10: Marydianne Andrade, Popular Science, page 58, Andrade first encountered the redback— whose lethal bite gives it as infamous a reputation in Australia as the black widow...
  2. A brown and white sandpiper (Calidris alpina), native to the Northern Hemisphere; the dunlin.

Origin

From red + back.

Forms

redbacks red-back red back

Synonyms

redback spider

Related

black widow katipo

Noun slang

  1. the yuan (CNY), the currency of the People's Republic of China (Red Chinese money)

Origin

Modelled after greenback, the currency of the United States of America, except using Communist Red

Forms

redbacks red-back red back