redhanded (redhan"ded)

With red or bloody hands; hence, in the very act, as if with red or bloody hands: said originally of a person taken in the act of homicide, but extended figuratively to one caught in the perpetration of any crime: generally in the phrase to be taken red-handed. I was pushed over by Pumblechook, exactly as if I had that moment picked a pocket, or fired a rick; indeed it was the impre ion in had taken red-handed ore Pumblechook shoved me before him through the crowd I heard some people say, "What's he done?" and others, "He's a young 'un too. Dickens, Great Expectations, xiii.