reed Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites
noun 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)
John Reed.
noun United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902)
Walter Reed.
noun a vibrator consisting of a thin strip of stiff material that vibrates to produce a tone when air streams over it
vibrating reed.
- the clarinetist fitted a new reed onto his mouthpiece
noun a musical instrument that sounds by means of a vibrating reed
beating-reed instrument; reed instrument.

AS. hred; akin to D. riet, G. riet, ried, OHG. kriot, riot.

(Bot.) A name given to many tall and coarse grasses or grasslike plants, and their slender, often jointed, stems, such as the various kinds of bamboo, and especially the common reed of Europe and North America (Phragmites communis).
A musical instrument made of the hollow joint of some plant; a rustic or pastoral pipe.
Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed Of Hermes. Milton.
An arrow, as made of a reed. Prior.
Straw prepared for thatching a roof. Prov. Eng.
(Mus.) (a) A small piece of cane or wood attached to the mouthpiece of certain instruments, and set in vibration by the breath. In the clarinet it is a single fiat reed; in the oboe and bassoon it is double, forming a compressed tube. (b) One of the thin pieces of metal, the vibration of which produce the tones of a melodeon, accordeon, harmonium, or seraphine; also attached to certain sets or registers of pipes in an organ.
(Weaving) A frame having parallel flat stripe of metal or reed, between which the warp threads pass, set in the swinging lathe or batten of a loom for beating up the weft; a sley. See Batten.
(Mining) A tube containing the train of powder for igniting the charge in blasting.
(Arch.) Same as Reeding.