Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Read \Read\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Read}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Reading}.] [OE. reden, r[ae]den, AS. r[=ae]dan to read,
   advice, counsel, fr. r[=ae]d advise, counsel, r[=ae]dan
   (imperf. reord) to advice, counsel, guess; akin to D. raden
   to advise, G. raten, rathen, Icel. r[=a][eth]a, Goth.
   r[=e]dan (in comp.), and perh. also to Skr. r[=a]dh to
   succeed. [root]116. Cf. Riddle.]
   1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See {Rede}.

            Therefore, I read thee, get 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 about 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.