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REED
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A musical instrument that sounds by means of a vibrating reed
Synonyms:
beating-reed instrument; reed; reed instrument
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
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)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A vibrator consisting of a thin strip of stiff material that vibrates to produce a tone when air streams over it
Example:
the clarinetist fitted a new reed onto his mouthpiece
Synonyms:
reed; vibrating reed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
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 3
Meaning:
United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902)
Synonyms:
Reed; Walter Reed
Classified under:
Instance hypernyms:
operating surgeon; sawbones; surgeon (a physician who specializes in surgery)
Sense 4
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)
Synonyms:
John Reed; Reed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Instance hypernyms:
commie; communist (a socialist who advocates communism)
journalist (a writer for newspapers and magazines)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites
Classified under:
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)
Context examples:
The Boscombe Pool is thickly wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the edge.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Of Mr. Reed's ghost I am: he died in that room, and was laid out there.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
High reeds of a peculiar type grew thickly before us, which were pronounced to be equisetacea, or mare's-tails, with tree-ferns scattered amongst them, all of them swaying in a brisk wind.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds which lined the lake.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs. Reed, who was gone upstairs: she now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid Abbot.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I shall always remember as we looked back how far behind we could see the heads and necks of our horrible pursuers rising and falling amid the reeds.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
From above came one thin knife-edge of sunshine, and fifteen feet over our heads one saw the tops of the reeds swaying against the deep blue sky.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proud indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servants' partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
