Read v. t. [imp. & p. p. Read p. pr. & vb. n. Reading.]
1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See Rede.
Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God's word, and thereby try all doctrine. --Tyndale.
2. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle.
3. To tell; to declare; to recite. [Obs.]
But read how art thou named, and of what kin. --Spenser.
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.
Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille. --Chaucer.
Well could he rede a lesson or a story. --Chaucer.
5. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.
Who is't can read a woman? --Shak.
6. 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.
7. 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.