redback

1. (Australia) A venomous spider, Latrodectus hasselti, endemic to Australia.Examples: "1988 June 16, Stephanie Pain, Things that go plop in the night, New Scientist, page 78, “If you find a redback, squash it firmly,” advised one guide."; "Many a red-back, funnel-web, or other spider has found its resting days at the bottom of a vegemite jar shoved into some dark recess of the laundry."; "2005 October, Martha Harrison, Brilliant 10: Marydianne Andrade, Popular Science, page 58, Andrade first encountered the redback— whose lethal bite gives it as infamous a reputation in Australia as the black widow enjoys here in North America—when her grad-school adviser asked to travel to go to Perth to study them."Synonyms: redback spiderAustralia

2. (US) A brown and white sandpiper (Calidris alpina), native to the Northern Hemisphere; the dunlin.US