redskirt
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
An unimportant or expendable female character, especially one introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril faced by important characters.
Register: slang
Where it’s used:
Used
American English
Examples
Wasn't there that episode where the aliens turned everyone into little blocks of styrofoam, and one of the aliens turned a redskirt and a redshirt into cubes and crumbled one of them? And then Scotty got really drunk. I seem to recall that the redskirt bought it that time.
Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Common questions
What does “redskirt” mean?
An unimportant or expendable female character, especially one introduced only to be killed in order to underscore the peril faced by important characters.
Is “redskirt” formal or informal?
redskirt is generally slang.