read

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive)To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

   “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.”

2. (ergative, intransitive, transitive)To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

   “Arabic reads right to left.”

   “That sentence reads strangely.”

3. (intransitive, metonymically, transitive)To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

   “At the moment I'm reading Milton.”

4. (intransitive, transitive)To speak aloud words or other information that is written. (often construed with a to phrase or an indirect object)

   “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. […]”

5. (transitive)To interpret, or infer a meaning, significance, thought, intention, etc., from.

   “She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.”

   “I can read his feelings in his face.”

6. To consist of certain text.

   “On the door hung a sign that read "No admittance".”

7. (ergative)To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.

   “In Livy, it is nearly certain that for Pylleon we should read Pteleon, as this place is mentioned in connection with Antron.”

   “The sign of coefficient a(3) in the general formula of Table 2 should be plus instead of minus. Thus, the formula should read […]”

8. (broadly, ergative, humorous, imperative, ironic, usually)To substitute a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one; used to introduce an emendation of a text.

   “Our school focuses primarily on the liberal arts (read "useless degrees").”

   “Eliminate illogical (read: stupid) answer choices.”

   “Parents, meanwhile, deplored [Bratz dolls] as far too adult (read: slutty) for kids, accusing the doe-eyed, pouty-lipped toys of fostering unhealthy body images among young girls.”

   “I also did a long-wear test, as y'do and after scoffing my face with some food (read: I am feral when it comes to a midday snack, so what), the striking colour that I was wearing, named 'Jet', had stayed put. Pigment, check ✅.”

9. (transitive)To be able to hear what another person is saying over a radio connection.

   “Do you read me?”

   “Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?”

10. (transitive)To observe and comprehend (a displayed signal).

    “A repeater signal may be used where the track geometry makes the main signal difficult to read from a distance.”

11. (Commonwealth, transitive)To study (a subject) at a high level, especially at university.

    “I am reading theology at university.”

    “Crabbe wanted him to go to England, to read for a degree there.”

12. (transitive)To fetch data from (a storage medium, etc.).

    “to read a hard disk”

    “to read a port”

    “to read the keyboard”

13. (transitive)To recognise (someone) as being transgender.

    “Every time I go outside, I worry that someone will read me.”

14. To call attention to the flaws of (someone) in a playful, taunting, or insulting way.

    “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.”

15. To imagine sequences of potential moves and responses without actually placing stones.
16. (obsolete)To think, believe; to consider (that).

    “But now, faire Ladie, comfort to you make, / And read[…] / That short reuenge the man may ouertake […]”

17. (obsolete)To advise; to counsel. See rede.

    “[T]herfore / I red the [thee] / gete the [thee] to Gods vvorde ãd [and] therby trye all doctrine and agenſt that receave nothinge.”

    “This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, / A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: / Therefore I read beware.”

18. (obsolete)To tell; to declare; to recite.

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

19. (form-of, participle, past)simple past and past participle of read

noun

1. A reading or an act of reading, especially of an actor's part of a play or a piece of stored data.

   “I had a read of the evening papers.”

   “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.”

2. (in-compounds)Something to be read; a written work.

   “His thrillers are always a gripping read.”

3. A person's interpretation or impression of something.

   “What's your read of the current political situation?”

   “On the quarterback's first read of the situation, his target receiver was not open.”

4. An instance of reading (“calling attention to someone's flaws; a taunt or insult”).

   “[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 (i.e., critique) or throw shade […].”

5. The identification of a specific sequence of genes in a genome or bases in a nucleic acid string.

name

1. A surname from Old English, a less common spelling variant of Reid.
2. A male given name transferred from the surname.
3. A village and civil parish in Ribble Valley district, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD7634).
4. A township in Clayton County, Iowa, United States.
5. A township in Butler County, Nebraska, United States.
6. An unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.