READ, n. [See the Verb.]

Instructed or knowing by reading; versed in books; learned. Well read is the phrase commonly used; as, well read in history; well read in the classics. A poet well read in Longinus. – Addison.

1. Counsel. [Obs.] – Sternhold.
2. Saying; sentence. [Obs.] – Spenser.

1. Uttered; pronounced, as written words in the roper order; as, the letter was read to the family.
2. Silently perused.

1. To perform the act of reading. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. – Neh. viii.
2. To be studious; to practice much reading. It is sure that Fleury reads. – Taylor.
3. To learn by reading. I hare read of an Eastern king who put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence. – Swift.
4. To tell; to declare. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

1. To utter or pronounce written or printed words, letters or characters in the proper order; to repeat the names or utter the sounds customarily annexed to words, letters or characters, to read a written or printed discourse; to read the letters of an alphabet; to read figures; to read the notes of music, or to read music.
2. To inspect and understand words or characters; to peruse silently as, to read a paper or letter without uttering the words; to read to one's self.
3. To discover or understand by characters, marks or features; as, to read a man's thoughts in his countenance. To read the interior structure of the globe. – Journ. of Science. An armed corse did lie, / In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. – Spenser.
4. To learn by observation. Those about her / From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. – Shak.
5. To know fully. Who is't can read a woman? – Shak.
6. To suppose to guess. [Obs.] – Spenser.
7. To advise. [Obs.] – Spenser.

1. Rennet. See 3d Reed.
   
   
   [Prov. Eng.]
2. To advise; to counsel.
   
   
   [Obs.] See Rede.

   Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God's word, and thereby try all doctrine. Tyndale.

3. To give advice or counsel.
   
   
   [Obs.]
4. Saying; sentence; maxim; hence, word; advice; counsel. See Rede.
   
   
   [Obs.]
5. imp. *** p. p. of Read, v. t. & i.
6. Instructed or knowing by reading; versed in books; learned.
   
   

   A poet . . . well read in Longinus. Addison.

7. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle.
8. To tell; to declare.
   
   
   [Obs.] Spenser.
9. Reading.
   
   
   [Colloq.] Hume.

   One newswoman here lets magazines for a penny a read. Furnivall.

10. To tell; to declare; to recite.
    
    
    [Obs.]

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

11. To perform the act of reading; to peruse, or to go over and utter aloud, the words of a book or other like document.
    
    

    So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. Neh. viii. 8.

12. 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.
    
    

    Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille. Chaucer.

    Well could he rede a lesson or a story. Chaucer.

13. To study by reading; as, he read for the bar.
14. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.
    
    

    Who is't can read a woman? Shak.

15. To learn by reading.
    
    

    I have read of an Eastern king who put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence. Swift.

16. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation.
    
    

    An armed corse did lie,
    In whose dead face he read great magnanimity. Spenser.

    Those about her
    From her shall read the perfect ways of honor. Shak.

17. To appear in writing or print; to be expressed by, or consist of, certain words or characters; as, the passage reads thus in the early manuscripts.
18. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks; as, to read theology or law.
    
    

    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.

19. To produce a certain effect when read; as, that sentence reads queerly.
    
    

    To read between the lines, to infer something different from what is plainly indicated; to detect the real meaning as distinguished from the apparent meaning.