Library / English Dictionary

LECTURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Teaching by giving a discourse on some subject (typically to a class)

Synonyms:

lecture; lecturing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

instruction; pedagogy; teaching (the profession of a teacher)

Meronyms (parts of "lecture"):

lecture demonstration (presentation of an example of what the lecturer is discoursing about)

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

talk (the act of giving a talk to an audience)

Holonyms ("lecture" is a part of...):

class; course; course of instruction; course of study (education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings)

Derivation:

lecture (deliver a lecture or talk)

lectureship (the post of lecturer)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A lengthy rebuke

Example:

the teacher gave him a talking to

Synonyms:

lecture; speech; talking to

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

rebuke; reprehension; reprimand; reproof; reproval (an act or expression of criticism and censure)

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

preaching; sermon (a moralistic rebuke)

curtain lecture (a private lecture to a husband by his wife)

Derivation:

lecture (censure severely or angrily)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A speech that is open to the public

Example:

he attended a lecture on telecommunications

Synonyms:

lecture; public lecture; talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

address; speech (the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience)

Derivation:

lecture (deliver a lecture or talk)

lectureship (the post of lecturer)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Censure severely or angrily

Example:

The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup

Synonyms:

bawl out; berate; call down; call on the carpet; chew out; chew up; chide; dress down; have words; jaw; lambast; lambaste; lecture; rag; rebuke; remonstrate; reprimand; scold; take to task; trounce

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "lecture" is one way to...):

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lecture"):

castigate; chasten; chastise; correct; objurgate (censure severely)

brush down; tell off (reprimand)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

lecture (a lengthy rebuke)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deliver a lecture or talk

Example:

Did you ever lecture at Harvard?

Synonyms:

lecture; talk

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "lecture" is one way to...):

instruct; learn; teach (impart skills or knowledge to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lecture"):

preach; prophesy (deliver a sermon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something ----s to somebody
Somebody ----s on something

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue lecture

Derivation:

lecture (teaching by giving a discourse on some subject (typically to a class))

lecture (a speech that is open to the public)

lecturer (a public lecturer at certain universities)

lecturer (someone who lectures professionally)

Credits

 Context examples: 

You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.

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

“I nearly met you, once, in Philadelphia, some Browning affair or other—you were to lecture, you know. My train was four hours late.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was transient: cleared away in an instant; but Anne could imagine she read there the consciousness of having, by some complication of mutual trick, or some overbearing authority of his, been obliged to attend (perhaps for half an hour) to his lectures and restrictions on her designs on Sir Walter.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I freely confess, that all the little knowledge I have of any value, was acquired by the lectures I received from my master, and from hearing the discourses of him and his friends; to which I should be prouder to listen, than to dictate to the greatest and wisest assembly in Europe.

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

Catherine knew all this very well; her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before; and yet she lay awake ten minutes on Wednesday night debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin, and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It will be your duty, and it will be your pleasure too—of course I know that; I am not delivering a lecture—to estimate her (as you chose her) by the qualities she has, and not by the qualities she may not have.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He took with him a bag in which were many instruments and drugs, the ghastly paraphernalia of our beneficial trade, as he once called, in one of his lectures, the equipment of a professor of the healing craft.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“You see, my dear Watson,”—he propped his test-tube in the rack, and began to lecture with the air of a professor addressing his class—“it is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself.”

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

Aunt March took no notice, but went on with her lecture.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You will perceive that Mr. Percival Waldron, a naturalist of some popular repute, is announced to lecture at eight-thirty at the Zoological Institute's Hall upon 'The Record of the Ages.'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)