read between the lines Definition

line¹
noun

1. A long narrow mark, streak or stripe.
2. A length of thread, rope, wire, etc used for specified purposes.

Example: a washing line
Example: mending the telephone lines
3. A wrinkle or furrow, especially on the skin.
4. math.
Something that has length but no breadth or thickness.
5. The path which a moving object is considered to leave behind it, having length but no breadth.
6. A row.

Thesaurus: rank, file, row, sequence.
7. A row of words or printed or written characters.

Example: a line from Shakespeare
8. The words of an actor's part.

Form: lines
9. An outline or shape.

Example: a car of stylish lines
Form: lines (often)
10. A punishment at school where a phrase or sentence has to be written out a set number of times.

Form: lines
11. music.
Any one of the five horizontal marks forming a musical stave.
12. music.
A series of notes forming a melody.
13. colloq
A short letter or note.
Example: drop him a line
14. A series or group of people coming one after the other, especially in the same family or profession.

Example: from a long line of doctors
Thesaurus: lineage, family, descent, ancestry, race, stock, strain, breed, bloodline, pedigree.
15. A field of activity, interest, study or work.

Example: his line of business
16. A course or way of acting, behaving, thinking or reasoning.

Example: think along different lines
17. The rules or limits of acceptable behaviour.

Example: overstep the line
18. A group or class of goods for sale.

Example: a new line in tonic water
19. A production line.
(N Amer, especially US)
20. A physical boundary. Compare limit.

Example: the county line
21. A figurative boundary or point of change.

Example: a thin line between genius and madness
22. One of several white marks outlining a pitch, race-track, etc on a field.

Example: goal line
23. A single track for trains or trams.
24. A branch or route of a railway system.
25. A route, track or direction of movement.

Example: line of fire
26. A continuous system, eg of telephone cables, connecting one place with another.
27a. A telephone connection

Example: trying to get a line to Aberdeen;
27b. A telephone number that connects the caller to some kind of special service, such as Childline or hot line.
28. A company running regular services of ships, buses or aircraft between two or more places.
29. An arrangement of troops or ships side by side and ready to fight.
30. A connected series of military defences.

Example: behind enemy lines
Form: lines (always)
31. The regular army.
32. One of several narrow horizontal bands forming a television picture.
33. The equator.

Form: the Line (often)
(N Amer)
34. A queue.
35. drug-taking slang
A small amount of powdered drugs, usually cocaine, arranged in a narrow channel, ready to be sniffed.
36. slang
A remark, usually insincere, that someone uses in the hope of getting some kind of benefit.
Example: He spun her a line
(Scots)
37. A short note written by someone in authority.

Example: The doctor's line covered her absence
(Scots)
38. A licence or certificate, eg of marriage or of church membership.

Form: lines

verb lined, lining

1. To mark or cover something with lines. See also white line.
2. To form a line along something.

Example: Crowds lined the streets

Idiom: all along the line

At every point.

Idiom: be in someone's line

To be the kind of thing someone is comfortable with.
Example: Dealing with children is not in her line

Idiom: bring someone or something into line

To make them or it conform.

Idiom: down the line

Said of the action of a ball, shot or player: very close to the edge of the court or pitch.

colloq
In the future.

Idiom: draw the line

See under draw.

Idiom: end of the line

colloq
The point at which it is useless or impossible to carry on.

Idiom: get a line on someone or something

colloq
To get information about them or it.

Idiom: hard lines!

colloq
Bad luck!

Idiom: in line for something

Likely to get it.
Example: in line for promotion

Idiom: in line to someone

In a line of succession.
Example: second in line to the boss

Idiom: in line with someone or something

In agreement or harmony with them or it.

Idiom: lay it on the line

To speak frankly.

Idiom: lay something on the line (put something on the line)

To risk one's reputation or career over something.

Idiom: on the lines of something (along the lines of something)

Sticking loosely to a specified way of doing it.

Idiom: on the right lines (along the right lines)

colloq
Approximately correct.

Idiom: out of line

Not aligned.

Impudent.

Exhibiting unacceptable behaviour.

Idiom: read between the lines

To understand something which is not actually stated.

Idiom: step out of line

See under step.

Etymology: 13c: from French ligne, combined with Anglo-Saxon line rope.

Phrasal Verb: line people or things up

To form them into a line.To align them.

Phrasal Verb: line something up

To organize it.
Example: lined herself up a new job

Phrasal Verb: line up

To form a line.To make a stand, eg in support of or against something. See line-up.

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read
verb read, reading

1. To look at and understand (printed or written words).
2. To speak (words which are printed or written).
3. To learn or gain knowledge of something by reading.

Example: read the election results in the newspaper
intr
4. To pass one's leisure time reading books, especially for pleasure.

Example: She doesn't read much
5. To look at or be able to see something and get information from it.

Example: cannot read the clock without my glasses
6. To interpret or understand the meaning of something other than writing, eg a map, a compass, the clouds, etc.

Example: read a map
7. To interpret or understand (signs, marks, etc) without using one's eyes.

Example: read Braille
8. To know (a language) well enough to be able to understand something written in it.

Example: speaks Chinese but cannot read it
intr
9. To have a certain wording.

Example: The letter reads as follows
tr & intr
10. To think that (a statement, etc) has a particular meaning.

Example: read it as criticism
Thesaurus: interpret, understand, decipher, construe, infer, see, comprehend.
intr
11. Said of writing: to convey meaning in a specified way.

Example: an essay which reads well
Example: reads badly
12. Said of a dial, instrument, etc: to show a particular measurement.

Example: The barometer reads ‘fair'
13. To replace (a word, phrase, etc) by another.

Example: for ‘three' read ‘four'
14. To put into a specified condition by reading.

Example: She read the child to sleep
15. To study (a subject) at university.
16. To hear and understand, especially when using two-way radio

Example: Do you read me?

noun

1. A period or act of reading.
2. A book, magazine, etc considered in terms of how readable it is.

Example: a good read

Idiom: read between the lines

To perceive a meaning which is implied but not stated.

Idiom: take something as read

To accept or assume it.

Idiom: well read (widely read)

Educated, especially in literature, through reading.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon rædan.

Phrasal Verb: read something into something

To find something in a person's writing, words, actions, etc (a meaning which is not stated clearly or made obvious and which may not have been intended).

Phrasal Verb: read something in or out

To transfer data from a disk or other storage device into the main memory of a computer.

Phrasal Verb: read something off from something

To take (figures, etc) as a reading from an instrument, database etc.
Example: read off the net profits from the speadsheet

Phrasal Verb: read something out

To read it aloud.

Phrasal Verb: read up on something

To learn a subject by reading books about it.