Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed characters, words, or sentences).
- intransitive verb To utter or render aloud (written or printed material).
- intransitive verb To have the ability to examine and grasp the meaning of (written or printed material in a given language or notation).
- intransitive verb To examine and grasp the meaning of (language in a form other than written or printed characters, words, or sentences).
- intransitive verb To examine and grasp the meaning of (a graphic representation).
- intransitive verb To discern and interpret the nature or significance of through close examination or sensitive observation.
- intransitive verb To discern or anticipate through examination or observation; descry.
- intransitive verb To determine the intent or mood of.
- intransitive verb To attribute a certain interpretation or meaning to.
- intransitive verb To consider (something written or printed) as having a particular meaning or significance.
- intransitive verb To foretell or predict (the future).
- intransitive verb To receive or comprehend (a radio message, for example).
- intransitive verb To study or make a study of.
- intransitive verb To learn or get knowledge of from something written or printed.
- intransitive verb To proofread.
- intransitive verb To have or use as a preferred reading in a particular passage.
- intransitive verb To indicate, register, or show.
- intransitive verb Computers To obtain (data) from a storage medium, such as a magnetic disk.
- intransitive verb Genetics To decode or translate (a sequence of messenger RNA) into an amino acid sequence in a polypeptide chain.
- intransitive verb To examine and grasp the meaning of printed or written characters, as of words or music.
- intransitive verb To speak aloud the words that one is reading.
- intransitive verb To learn by reading.
- intransitive verb To study.
- intransitive verb To have a particular wording.
- intransitive verb To contain a specific meaning.
- intransitive verb To indicate, register, or show a measurement or figure.
- intransitive verb To have a specified character or quality for the reader.
- noun Something that is read.
- noun An interpretation or assessment.
- adjective Informed by reading; learned.
- idiom (lecture/lesson) To issue a reprimand.
- idiom (read between the lines) To perceive or detect an obscure or unexpressed meaning.
- idiom (read out of) To expel by proclamation from a social, political, or other group.
from The Century Dictionary.
- An obsolete form of
red . - Having knowledge gained from reading; instructed by reading; in general, versed: now usually with well: as, well read in the classics.
- To counsel; advise; recommend.
- To teach; instil, as a lesson.
- To explain the meaning of; explain; interpret; make out; solve: as, to
read a riddle; to read a dream. - To declare; tell; rehearse.
- To suppose; guess; imagine; fancy.
- To understand by observation or scrutiny; acquire a knowledge of (something not otherwise obvious) by interpreting signs or indications; study out; interpret: as, to
read the signs of the times; to read the sky or a person's countenance. - To discover by observation or scrutiny; perceive from signs or indications.
- To observe and apprehend the meaning of (something written, printed, inscribed, or stamped in letters or other significant characters); go over with the eyes (or, in the case of the blind, with the fingers) and take in the meaning of (significant characters forming or representing words or sentences); peruse: as, to
read a book, newspaper, poem, inscription, or piece of music. - To note the indication of (a graduated instrument): as, to
read a thermometer or a circle. - To utter aloud: said of words or sounds represented by letters or other significant characters.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Larry later read& line-edited all the novels; we heard read aloud every chap. 1 at semester's end.
Hoss Men (divided) 2010
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JLenard..read his username phonectically and then read his comment...
If the Florida GOP Can Do It, So Can the NRSC - Erick’s blog - RedState 2009
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Folks…I just read this on DailyKos..read it if you want to feel better and a tad more hopeful about the press and holding GW to account.
Think Progress » Bush: I’m Sending More Troops To Iraq No Matter What Congress Does 2007
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As a middle school teacher actively *trying* to get kids out there to read science fiction and fantasy heck, getting kids to *read*, period!
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He was indeed a prodigious Scholar; he had learn'd the_ Alcoran, _and was well initiated into Human Learning before he was Ten years old; then he studied Logick and Arithmetick, and read over Euclid without any help, only his Master show'd him how to demonstrate the first five or six Propositions; Then he read_ Ptolemy's Almagest,
The Improvement of Human Reason Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan Ibn Tufail
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In short, I hope the reader who is now looking at this preface will carefully read every word in the following pages; and not only _read_, but _remember_, the lessons there taught, and thereby become wiser and better.
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If you wanted to educate a child, would you teach him to read one play of Shakespeare, or would you teach him to _read_?
A Preface to Politics Walter Lippmann 1931
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I was also forbidden to read the only one of Ouida's books which I wished to read "Under Two Flags."
I. Boyhood and Youth 1913
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Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_."
Saint Augustin Louis Bertrand 1903
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For the text which refers to the man 'who has read the Veda' enjoins works on him who has merely _read_ the texts, and _reading_ there means nothing more than the apprehension of the aggregate of syllables called
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 George Thibaut 1881
oroboros commented on the word read
present tense v. past tense.
November 22, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word read
How could this be such a boring word for such an incredibly mind-expanding, tremendously important activity?
August 5, 2008
yarb commented on the word read
It's even more boring in the past tense. Read. Thud. Bed. Dud.
August 5, 2008
EditorMark commented on the word read
Recently came across this usage in regard to having an original musical composition played by musicians: "Has this been read yet?"
May 31, 2010