‘To catch someone red-handed’ means to catch someone committing a crime, particularly theft or burglary. ➡️ However, the expression can also be used more broadly to refer to catching someone in the act of doing something wrong or embarrassing, even if it is not necessarily illegal. For example, you might say that you caught your friend red-handed eating the last cookie. So, it can also be used in a more general sense to describe catching someone in any act of wrongdoing or embarrassing behaviour