- Read
- Read Read (r[=e]d), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Read} (r[e^]d); p.
pr. & vb. n. {Reading}.] [OE. reden, r[ae]den, AS. r[=ae]dan
to read, advise, counsel, fr. r[=ae]d advice, counsel,
r[=ae]dan (imperf. reord) to advise, counsel, guess; akin to
D. raden to advise, G. raten, rathen, Icel. r[=a][eth]a,
Goth. r[=e]dan (in comp.), and perh. also to Skr. r[=a]dh to
succeed. [root]116. Cf. {Riddle}.]
1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See {Rede}.
[1913 Webster]
Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God's word, and thereby try all doctrine. --Tyndale. [1913 Webster]
2. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle. [1913 Webster]
3. To tell; to declare; to recite. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
But read how art thou named, and of what kin. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
Well could he rede a lesson or a story. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
5. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend. [1913 Webster]
Who is't can read a woman? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
6. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation. [1913 Webster]
An armed corse did lie, In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
Those about her From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
7. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks; as, to read theology or law. [1913 Webster]
{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. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.