Quotes

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling

We read to know we are not alone. C.S. Lewis

Collocations

Read between the lines
Read the room
Read someone’s lips
Take something to read

read noun Rennet. See 3d Reed. [Prov. Eng.]

Read (rēd) transitive verb [imperfect or past participle Read (rĕd); present participle or verbal noun Reading.] [OE. reden, ræden, AS. rǣdan to read, advise, counsel, fr. rǣd advice, counsel, rǣdan (imperf. reord) to advise, counsel, guess; akin to D. raden to advise, G. raten, rathen, Icel. rāða, Goth. rēdan (in comp.), and perh. also to Skr. rādh to succeed. √116. Cf. Riddle.]

1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See Rede.

Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God’s word, and thereby try all doctrine. Tyndale. 2. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle.

3. To tell; to declare; to recite. [Obs.]

But read how art thou named, and of what kin. Spenser.

4. To go over, as characters or words, and utter aloud, or recite to one's self inaudibly; to take in the sense of, as of language, by interpreting the characters with which it is expressed; to peruse; as, to read a discourse; to read the letters of an alphabet; to read figures; to read the notes of music, or to read music; to read a book.

Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille. Chaucer.

Well could he rede a lesson or a story. Chaucer.

5. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.

Who is't can read a woman? Shak.

6. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation.

An armed corse did lie,
In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. Spenser.

Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. Shak.

7. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks; as, to read theology or law.

To read one's self in

to read aloud the Thirty-nine Articles and the Declaration of Assent, – required of a clergyman of the Church of England when he first officiates in a new benefice.

Read intransitive verb

1. To give advice or counsel. [Obs.]

2. To tell; to declare. [Obs.] Spenser.

3. To perform the act of reading; to peruse, or to go over and utter aloud, the words of a book or other like document.

So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. Neh. viii. 8

4. To study by reading; as, he read for the bar.

5. To learn by reading.

I have read of an Eastern king who put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence. Swift.

6. To appear in writing or print; to be expressed by, or consist of, certain words or characters; as, the passage reads thus in the early manuscripts.

7. To produce a certain effect when read; as, that sentence reads queerly.

To read between the lines

to infer something different from what is plainly indicated; to detect the real meaning as distinguished from the apparent meaning.

Read noun [AS. rǣd counsel, fr. rǣdan to counsel. See Read, transitive verb]

1. Saying; sentence; maxim; hence, word; advice; counsel. See Rede. [Obs.]

2. [Read, verb] Reading. [Colloq.] Hume.

One newswoman here lets magazines for a penny a read. Furnivall.

Read (rĕd) imperfect or past participle of Read, transitive or intransitive verb

Read (rĕd) adjective Instructed or knowing by reading; versed in books; learned.

A poet . . . well read in Longinus. Addison.