reed

English Online Dictionary. What means reed‎? What does reed mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: rēd, IPA^(key): /ɹiːd/
• Homophones: read, Reid, Reade, Read
• Rhymes: -iːd

Etymology 1

From Middle English red, reed, from Old English hrēod, from Proto-West Germanic *hreud, of uncertain origin.

Akin to Saterland Frisian Rait (“reed”), West Frisian reid (“reed”), Dutch riet (“reed”), German Ried (“reed”). No cognates in North Germanic languages, but the existence of an otherwise unattested Gothic *𐌷𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌳 (*hriud) was supposed by the brothers Grimm. They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius). The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.

Noun

reed (countable and uncountable, plural reeds)

2. (countable) Any of various types of tall stiff perennial grass-like plants growing together in groups near water.
3. (countable) The hollow stem of these plants.
4. (countable, music) Part of the mouthpiece of certain woodwind instruments, comprising a thin piece of wood or metal which shakes very quickly to produce sound when a musician blows over it.
5. (countable, music) A musical instrument such as the clarinet or oboe, which produces sound when a musician blows on the reed.
7. (countable, weaving) A comb-like part of a beater for beating the weft when weaving.
8. (countable, historical) A piece of whalebone or similar for stiffening the skirt or waist of a woman's dress.
9. (uncountable, architecture) Reeding.
10. (mining) A tube containing the train of powder for igniting the charge in blasting.
11. Straw prepared for thatching a roof.
12. (poetic, obsolete) A missile weapon.
13. (archaic, metrology) A measuring rod.
    1. A Babylonian unit of measure the length of a reed, equal to half a nindan, or six cubits.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English reden, from the noun (see above).

Verb

reed (third-person singular simple present reeds, present participle reeding, simple past and past participle reeded)

1. (transitive) To thatch.
2. To mill or mint with reeding.

Etymology 3

See ree.

Verb

reed

1. simple past and past participle of ree

Etymology 4

From Middle English rede (“abomasum”), from Old English rēada, from Proto-West Germanic *raudō.

Alternative forms

• read

Noun

reed (plural reeds)

1. (UK, Scotland, dialect) The fourth stomach of a ruminant; rennet.

References

Anagrams

• -dere, Eder, Rede, de re, deer, dere, dree, rede

Dutch

Pronunciation 1

• Rhymes: -eːt, -eː
• IPA^(key): /reː(t)/
• Homophones: reedt, reet

Verb

reed

1. singular past indicative of rijden

Pronunciation 2

• Rhymes: -eːt
• IPA^(key): /reːt/
• Homophone: reedt

Verb

reed

1. inflection of reden:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Anagrams

• rede

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ræd.

Noun

reed

1. (Chaucer) advice, counsel

Etymology 2

From Old English read.

Adjective

reed

1. red
   • 14th c., Chaucer, General Prologue

Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German gerêde, from Old Saxon *girēdi, from Proto-West Germanic *(ga)raidī, from Proto-Germanic *raidaz.

Adjective

reed

1. ready, prepared

West Frisian

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

reed c (plural redens, diminutive reedsje)

1. skate

Further reading

• “reed (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Etymology 2

From Old Frisian *rēd, from Proto-West Germanic *raidu, from Proto-Germanic *raidō.

Noun

reed c (plural reden, diminutive reedsje)

1. driveway
2. journey

Further reading

• “reed (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English red, from Old English rēad, from Proto-West Germanic *raud.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɾiːd/
• Homophone: reade

Adjective

reed

1. red

Derived terms

• redaughe

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 64