Etimology
From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”). Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess, counsel, rede”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). The development from ‘advise’ to ‘interpret, interpret letters, read’ is unique to English among Germanic languages. Compare rede.
verb
read (third-person singular simple present reads, present participle reading, simple past read, past participle read or (archaic, dialectal) readen)
(transitive or intransitive) To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
(transitive or intransitive) To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)
(transitive) To read work(s) written by (a named author).
(transitive) To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.
To consist of certain text.
(ergative) Of text, etc., to be interpreted or read in a particular way.
(transitive, frequently humorous) To substitute (a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one); used to introduce an emendation of a text.
(informal, usually ironic) Used after a euphemism to introduce the intended, more blunt meaning of a term.
(transitive, telecommunications) To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.
(transitive, rail transport) To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal).
(transitive, Commonwealth, except Scotland) To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks.
(computing, transitive) To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).
(transitive, LGBT) To recognise (someone) as being transgender.
(at first especially in the black LGBT community) To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in either a playful, a taunting, or an insulting way.
(go) To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually placing stones.
(obsolete) To think, believe; to consider (that).
(obsolete) To advise; to counsel. See rede.
(obsolete) To tell; to declare; to recite.
Examples
Have you read this book?
He doesn’t like to read.
During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
She reads Playgirl magazine, goes to a male-strip joint and then complains about sexual harassment on the job.
On this occasion he was carrying in his right hand a copy of the English-language China News, an odd touch because the President did not read English.
Synonyms: interpret, make out, make sense of, understand, scan
He read us a passage from his new book.
All right, class, who wants to read next?
In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […] and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement. […]
Synonyms: read aloud, read out, read out loud, speak
At the moment I'm reading Milton.
She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.
I can read his feelings in his face.
On the door hung a sign that reads "No admittance".
The passage reads differently in the earlier manuscripts.
Arabic reads right to left.
That sentence reads strangely.
Synonym: sic pro
In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.
Our school focuses primarily on the classical authors .
Eliminate illogical answer choices.
Synonyms: copy, hear, receive
Do you read me?
Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
A repeater signal may be used where the track geometry makes the main signal difficult to read from a distance.
I am reading theology at university.
Synonyms: learn, study
Crabbe wanted him to go to England, to read for a degree there.
to read a hard disk
to read a port
to read the keyboard
Synonym: clock
Every time I go outside, I worry that someone will read me.
I've seen drags "read" an unattractive transsexual until she was almost in tears.
Snapping, we are told, comes from reading, or exposing hidden flaws in a person's life, and out of reading comes shade […]
CB [a black gay person being quoted]: "So, one time I read him and we were standing downstairs at the front desk in the dorm and I read him and there was this little bell […] ." In the first example, the interviewee [CB] used snapping to read his white friend in a playful way, […] .
[One] assumes that such language contests are racially motivated—black folks talking back to white folks. However, the ball world makes it clear that blacks can read each other too.
But now, faire Ladie, comfort to you make, / And read […] / That short reuenge the man may ouertake […]
[T]herfore, I red the [thee], gette the [thee] to gods vvorde and thereby trye all doctrine, and agaynſte that receaue no thinge.
This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, / A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: / Therefore I read beware.
But read how art thou named, and of what kin.
noun
read (plural reads)
A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.
(in combination) Something to be read; a written work.
A person's interpretation or impression of something.
(at first especially in the black LGBT community) An instance of reading (“calling attention to someone's flaws; a taunt or insult”).
(biochemistry) The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string
Examples
One newswoman here lets magazines for a penny a read.
And when he finishes supper / Planning to have a read at the evening paper / It's Put a screw in this wall— / He has no time at all […]
In other words, the system can do 1200 reads per second with no writes, the average write is twice as slow as the average read, and the relationship is linear.
His thrillers are always a gripping read.
What's your read of the current political situation?
[As] Corey points out, "if you and I are both black queens then we can't call each other black queens because that's not a read. That's a [fact]."
Like most African-American women, Pearlie Mae uses snapping in many of the same ways that black gay men use it: to accentuate a read.
I learned that it was acceptable to be witty, especially if you were one of the wearblackallthetime, deconstructivist, radical, feministbitchydiva girls who could give a harsh read or throw shade […] .
Etimology
From Middle English redde (simple past), red, rad (past participle), from Old English rǣdde (simple past), (ġe)rǣded (past participle), conjugations of rǣdan (“to read”); see above.
verb
read
inflection of read: