red shirt

• Red Shirt

red shirt (plural red shirts)

1. A minor character or member of a group, especially one who is expendable or likely to be killed.
   • 2000, Terry J. Erdmann & ‎Paula M. Block, Deep Space Nine Companion, →ISBN, page 44:

     Trekkers knew that if a "red shirt" — a non-regular cast member garbed in a red Starfleet tunic — was assigned to a landing party with Captain Kirk, the odds were very much against him or her returning from that mission. "Red shirts" were the expendable members of the crew, and viewers were never really surprised if the poor innocents were snuffed by the episode's end.

   • 2007, Dana Stabenow, A Deeper Sleep, →ISBN, page 174:

     But Howie was only a pawn in this war, a foot soldier, a red shirt.

   • 2014, Mikhail Lerma, Z-Plan 2: Red Tides, →ISBN:

     He, however, was nothing more than another red shirt. Michael still tried to imagine what was running through that kid's mind as he charged head long into the mob, his shouts of glory quickly turning to screams of terror as they ripped him apart.

2. A sailor whose job it is to handle ordinance on an aircraft carrier.
   • 1988, The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation - Volume 31, Part 2, page 47:

     Red shirts deal with weapons and crash and salvage operations.

   • 2001, Wynn F. Foster, Fire on the Hangar Deck: Ordeal of the Oriskany, page 7:

     Gervais was a red shirt, a member of the night ordnance crew, who wore red for easy visual identification of ordnance handlers.

   • 2016, Robert Baker, The Flight of the Sparrow, →ISBN:

     As I exited the COD, there was a “red shirt” with GM stenciled in big black letters on the front and back of his shirt there to greet me, loan me a set of Mickey Mouse Ears and lend a hand with my gear.

3. Alternative form of Red Shirt
   1. A member of the UDD.
      • 2014, JJ Stone, Bungee Love, →ISBN, page 283:

        Well, it was not too easy today, because the red shirts were staging a big rally in Bangkok this weekend.

      • 2016, Alfred Gerstl & ‎Mária Strašáková, Unresolved Border, Land and Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia, →ISBN:

        During the rule of yellow shirts the Thai stance towards the Preah Vihear temple was more nationalist, while the red shirts, whose leaders enjoyed close ties with Camboida's leaders, were also the initiators of cooperative mechanisms and were developing warm ties with Cambodia.

      • 2017, Tom Moon Mullins, I sought refuge with the Red Shirts, →ISBN, page 15:

        As he got near the MBK center at Siam, he noticed about a dozen red shirt guards standing outside of a number of sandbags and a wooden fence area which appeeared to be an entrance.

   2. A follower of Garibaldi.
      • 1865, Alberto Mario, The Red Shirt: Episodes, page 253:

        Are our Garibaldians, the red shirts, there?

      • 2003, Richard Morris, The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table, →ISBN:

        The “red shirts” led by Guiseppe Garibaldi had already freed Sicily.

      • 2013, Jacob F. Field, We Shall Fight on the Beaches: The Speeches That Inspired History, →ISBN:

        In 1860, he and his 1,000 'red shirts' took Sicily.

4. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see red,‎ shirt.