reed

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

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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.[1] They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius).[1] The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.[2]

sense 1

reed (countable and uncountable, plural reeds)

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

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

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.

See ree.

reed

1. simple past and past participle of ree

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

• read

reed (plural reeds)

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

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

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

reed

1. singular past indicative of rijden

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

reed

1. inflection of reden:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

• rede

From Old English ræd.

reed

1. (Chaucer) advice, counsel

From Old English read.

reed

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

     Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.

     Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hue.

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

reed

1. ready, prepared

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

reed c (plural redens, diminutive reedsje)

1. skate

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

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

reed c (plural reden, diminutive reedsje)

1. driveway
2. journey

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

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

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

reed

1. red
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Reed jhemes; Reed-shearde on a mountain.

     Red rags; The Red Gap on the mountain.

   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 8, page 86:

     Zim dellen harnothès w'aar nize ee reed cley;

     Some digging earth-nuts with their noses in red clay;

• redaughe

• 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