English Dictionary

REED

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IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Reed mean? 

REED (noun)
  The noun REED has 5 senses:

1. tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmitesplay

2. United States journalist who reported on the October Revolution from Petrograd in 1917; founded the Communist Labor Party in America in 1919; is buried in the Kremlin in Moscow (1887-1920)play

3. United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902)play

4. a vibrator consisting of a thin strip of stiff material that vibrates to produce a tone when air streams over itplay

5. a musical instrument that sounds by means of a vibrating reedplay

  Familiarity information: REED used as a noun is common.


 Dictionary entry details 


REED (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("reed" is a kind of...):

graminaceous plant; gramineous plant (cosmopolitan herbaceous or woody plants with hollow jointed stems and long narrow leaves)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reed"):

Arundo conspicua; Chionochloa conspicua; toetoe; toitoi (used by Maoris for thatching)

Arundo donax; giant reed (large rhizomatous perennial grasses found by riversides and in ditches having jointed stems and large grey-white feathery panicles)

carrizo; common reed; ditch reed; Phragmites communis (tall North American reed having relative wide leaves and large plumelike panicles; widely distributed in moist areas; used for mats, screens and arrow shafts)

Derivation:

reedy (resembling a reed in being upright and slender)


Sense 2

Meaning:

United States journalist who reported on the October Revolution from Petrograd in 1917; founded the Communist Labor Party in America in 1919; is buried in the Kremlin in Moscow (1887-1920)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

John Reed; Reed

Instance hypernyms:

commie; communist (a socialist who advocates communism)

journalist (a writer for newspapers and magazines)


Sense 3

Meaning:

United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Reed; Walter Reed

Instance hypernyms:

operating surgeon; sawbones; surgeon (a physician who specializes in surgery)


Sense 4

Meaning:

A vibrator consisting of a thin strip of stiff material that vibrates to produce a tone when air streams over it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

reed; vibrating reed

Context example:

the clarinetist fitted a new reed onto his mouthpiece

Hypernyms ("reed" is a kind of...):

vibrator (a mechanical device that vibrates)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reed"):

double reed (a pair of joined reeds that vibrate together to produce the sound in some woodwinds)


Sense 5

Meaning:

A musical instrument that sounds by means of a vibrating reed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

beating-reed instrument; reed; reed instrument

Hypernyms ("reed" is a kind of...):

wood; woodwind; woodwind instrument (any wind instrument other than the brass instruments)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reed"):

double-reed instrument; double reed (a woodwind that has a pair of joined reeds that vibrate together)

free-reed (a reed that does not fit closely over the aperture)

single-reed instrument; single-reed woodwind (a beating-reed instrument with a single reed (as a clarinet or saxophone))

Derivation:

reedy (having a tone of a reed instrument)


 Context examples 


Then Mrs. Reed subjoined—"Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But round the water—where the reeds were?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A mole could trace it, and there it vanishes among the reeds.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Peters and his co-authors, UC Santa Barbara marine ecologists Dan Reed and Deron Burkepile, saw the local community of sea-bottom invertebrates as a likely additional nitrogen source.

(In search of an undersea kelp forest's missing nitrogen, National Science Foundation)

When his request was granted he set out on his way, and one day came to a pond, where he saw three fishes caught in the reeds and gasping for water.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Then there were a number of grammars, such as Metcalf’s, and Reed and Kellogg’s; and I smiled as I saw a copy of The Dean’s English.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A deafening roar, a fluff of bluish light, and the great square tower rocked and trembled from its very foundations, swaying this way and that like a reed in the wind.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Say, 'What do you want, Master Reed?'" was the answer.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Presently it gave a warning snort, and was off with its family among the reeds, while the armadillos also scuttled for shelter.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)



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