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Glite Dictionary
Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood

2 2.3
A girl in a famous fairy tale who meets a wolf while visiting her grandmother
  • proper noun
  • Literature
translation icon : Caperucita Roja
  • Every child knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood and her adventure in the dark woods.
  • Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf

Examples

  • That's Little Red Riding Hood.

    The Lookout (2007)

  • Did Little Red Riding Hood lose her way to Grandma's bathroom?

    Sorority Boys (2002)

  • You make me feel just like little Red Riding Hood.

    Mildred Pierce (1945)

  • Hey, Little Red Riding Hood.

    Blonde Ambition (2007)

  • Grand M: That is how the story goes, Little Red Riding Hood.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Hello, I'm Little Red Riding Hood.

    Mister Lonely (2008)

  • For two years running, she was Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Where's Little Red Riding Hood?

    While She Was Out (2008)

  • Little Red Riding Hood.

    Haunt (2019)

  • LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD appears on the stage apron in a field of wildflowers, carrying a wicker basket.

    Fiction book (1991)

Surface Forms

Little Red Riding Hood main

Morphology

little + red + riding + hood

The constituent words transparently describe a small person with a red hood (little + red + riding hood), so a learner can infer a physical description of someone wearing a red riding hood. However, the expression is a fixed proper name for a specific fairy-tale character and narrative (wolf, grandmother etc.), which cannot be fully derived from the parts alone, so knowledge of the story is needed to reach the full meaning.

Etymology

Little Red Riding Hood comes from an old 'fairy tale' about a little girl who wears a red hood and walks through the woods with a basket to visit her grandmother, where she meets a wolf. That's why the name now means that girl or the 'story' about danger and being careful.