reddleman

English

Etymology

reddle +‎ -man

Noun

reddleman (plural reddlemen)

1. A ruddleman.
   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native:

     You little children think there's only one cuckoo, one fox, one giant, one devil, and one reddleman, when there's lots of us all.

2. (archaic) A bogeyman
   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, page 89:

     A child’s first sight of a reddleman was an epoch in his life. That blood-coloured figure was a sublimation of all the horrible dreams which had afflicted the juvenile spirit since imagination began. ‘The reddleman is coming for you!’ had been the formulated threat of Wessex mothers for many generations.

Anagrams

• laddermen, raddlemen