Definition of reading:

• the act of measuring with meters or similar instruments; " he has a job meter reading for the gas company"
• a city on the River Thames in Berkshire in southern England
• the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message; " he enjoys reading books"
• written material intended to be read; " the teacher assigned new readings"; " he bought some reading material at the airport"
• a particular interpretation or performance; " on that reading it was an insult"; " he was famous for his reading of Mozart"
• The act of one who reads; perusal; also, printed or written matter to be read.
• Study of books; literary scholarship; as, a man of extensive reading.
• A lecture or prelection; public recital.
• The way in which anything reads; force of a word or passage presented by a documentary authority; lection; version.
• Manner of reciting, or acting a part, on the stage; way of rendering.
• An observation read from the scale of a graduated instrument; as, the reading of a barometer.
• Perusal of written or printed matter; study of books; scholarship; public recital; as, to give readings from the poets; form of a particular passage in a book; as, various readings of a passage in Shakespeare; written or printed matter to be perused; manner of interpreting; as, an actor's reading of his lines; that which is shown by a scientific instrument; as, the reading of a gas meter.
• Act of reading: persual: study of books: public or formal recital: the way in which a passage reads: an interpretation of a passage or work.
• Perusal; recital; interpretation or language of a passage.
• The act of one who reads; study.
• That which is read; exact form of a passage or word in a given book; interpretation; rendering.
• The act of reading; study of books; a lecture; a public recital; the way in which a passage reads; interpretation and rendering; the formal recital of a bill by the proper officer before the legislative body which is to consider it.
• A perusal; a public recital; a lecture; a given word or passage as it reads in a particular MS. or printed book; a version or interpretation of a particular passage in a book, as conveying the true meaning of its author; the formal recital of a bill before Parliament, as first reading.
• of Read
• Of or pertaining to the act of reading; used in reading.
• Addicted to reading; as, a reading community.
• Addicted to reading.
• Addicted to or devoted to reading.

Usage examples for reading

1. He had been reading.  Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France by Stanley J. Weyman

2. How can you think of reading it?  Tess of the d'Urbervilles A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

3. His baby sister was asleep, and the nurse was reading a story- book, so it could not have been either of them who called.  Mopsa the Fairy by Jean Ingelow

4. But you are reading it at this very minute!  The Red Room by August Strindberg