reading

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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]

1.The act of one who reads; perusal; also, printed or written matter to be read. [1913 Webster]

2.Study of books; literary scholarship; as, a man of extensive reading. [1913 Webster]

3.A lecture or prelection; public recital. [1913 Webster]

The Jews had their weekly readings of the law.— Hooker.[1913 Webster]

4.The way in which anything reads; force of a word or passage presented by a documentary authority; lection; version. [1913 Webster]

5.Manner of reciting, or acting a part, on the stage; way of rendering. [Cant] [1913 Webster]

6.An observation read from the scale of a graduated instrument; as, the reading of a barometer. [1913 Webster]

Reading of a bill (Legislation), its formal recital, by the proper officer, before the House which is to consider it. [1913 Webster]

1.Of or pertaining to the act of reading; used in reading. [1913 Webster]

2.Addicted to reading; as, a reading community. [1913 Webster]

Reading book, a book for teaching reading; a reader.

Reading desk, a desk to support a book while reading; esp., a desk used while reading the service in a church.

Reading glass, a large lens with more or less magnifying power, attached to a handle, and used in reading, etc.

Reading man, one who reads much; hence, in the English universities, a close, industrious student.

Reading room, a room appropriated to reading; a room provided with papers, periodicals, and the like, to which persons resort. [1913 Webster]

The Devil's Dictionary

We know by one's reading His learning and breeding; By what draws his laughter We know his Hereafter. Read nothing, laugh never -- The Sphinx was less clever! Jupiter Muke