lecturen.
/ˈlɛktʃə/, U.S. /ˈlɛk(t)ʃər/ 1. The action of reading, perusal; also figurative. Also, that which is read or perused. archaic.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > reading > [noun]
readingeOE
lecture1398
inredingc1449
lection1669
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) viii. x. 311 He dysposyth a man and makith him able to letture and to wrytynge.
c1450 J. Lydgate Secrees 379 With alle these vertues plentevous in lecture.
1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos vi. 24 By thynspection and lecture of theyr wrytyngys.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Astrophel & Stella lxxvii That face, whose lecture shewes what perfect beautie is.
1612 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don-Quixote: Pt. 1 i. i. 4 He plunged himselfe so deepely in his reading of these bookes, as he spent many times in the Lecture of them whole dayes and nights.
1642 Boyle in Lismore Papers (1888) 2nd Ser. V. 115 I have receaued a great deal of contentment..by the lecture of those particularitys of my Brother's..victoryes.
1642 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici 54 Were I a Pagan, I should not refrain the Lecture of it [the Bible].
1741 C. Middleton Hist. Life Cicero II. ix. 290 He addressed it [the De Senectute] to Atticus, as a lecture of common comfort to them both, in that gloomy scene of life on which they were entring.
1790 C. M. Graham Lett. Educ. 130 The French poetry I would limit to Boileau [etc.]..and the Latin lectures to selected plays of Terence [etc.].
1829 H. D. Best Personal & Lit. Mem. 401 No one..ought to be contented with a single lecture of a work that requires such attentive study.
1904 J. Conrad Nostromo i. vi. 47 In about a year he had evolved from the lecture of the letters a definite conviction.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvii. [Ithaca] 676 What fractions of phrases did the lecture of those four whole words evoke?
1929 R. Bridges Test. Beauty i. 24 If we read but of Europe since the birth of Christ, 'tis still incompetent disorder, all a lecture of irredeemable shame.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > meaning of linguistic unit > literal meaning > [noun]
letter1340
propertya1387
lecturec1475
propriety1648
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > textual criticism > version of text > [noun] > reading
lecturec1475
reading1540
lection1659
c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 32 Be þei ware þat þei knitt not falsly a wey þe witt fro þe lecture.
1538 Bible (Coverdale) (Paris) To Rdr. sig. ✠iij Where as the Greke and the olde awncient authours reade the prayer of oure lorde in the xi. Chapter of Luke after one maner..I folowe their lecture.
1682 Weekly Memorials for Ingenious (Fairthorne & Kersey) 16 Jan. 2 He thinks their multiplicity and various lecture prove prejudicial to many Students.
3. The action of reading aloud. Also, that which is so read, a lection or lesson. archaic.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > parts of service > reading > [noun]
capitleOE
lesson?c1225
legenda1387
chapter1482
lecture1526
lection1608
pericope1643
capitulum1668
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > recitation > [noun] > reading aloud
readingOE
lessonc1300
lecture1664
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Acts xiii. 15 After the lectur of the lawe and the prophetes.
1534 T. More Treat. Passion in Wks. 1301/1 And vp on thys arose thys newe counsayle..whereof oure present lecture speaketh.
1539 Bible (Great) 2 Cor. iii. 14 In the lecture of the olde testament.
1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxxv. 220 With solemne recital of..lectures Psalmes and praiers.
1623 W. Lisle in tr. Ælfric Saxon Treat. Old & New Test. Pref. ⁋18 He that conquered the Land could not so conquer the language, but that in memory of our fathers, it hath been preserved with common lectures.
1664 J. Bulteel Birinthea 74 He repeated the Lecture of this Message.
1764 ‘G. Psalmanazar’ Memoirs 272 I could easily enough understand both their lectures of the Old Testament and their prayers.
1849 C. Brontë Shirley III. iv. 91 She began to read. The language had become strange to her tongue; it faltered: the lecture flowed unevenly.
1849 D. Rock Church of our Fathers IV. xii. 126 Then came a lecture out of some pious writer.
1876 Bulwer-Lytton's Pausanias (ed. 2) ii. iv. 137 She seemed listening to the lecture of the slave.
4.
a. A discourse given before an audience upon a given subject, usually for the purpose of instruction. (The regular name for discourses or instruction given to a class by a professor or teacher at a college or University. Cf. sense 5.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > [noun] > a discourse or lecture
spellc888
predicationa1325
lessonc1330
collation1417
sermocination1514
discourse1533
lecture1536
descant1567
peroration1607
homilya1616
sermona1616
exercitation1632
transcursion1641
exhortatory1656
by-discourse1660
screed1748
purlicue1825
rhesis1840
talk1859
lecturette1867
chalk talk1881
pi-jaw1896
society > education > teaching > means of teaching > [noun] > instructive discourse > lecture
ordinary?a1475
lecture1536
prelection1565
lection?1566
leccer1899
telelecture1955
1536 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 42 §4 To reade one opyn and publique lectour in every of the said Universities in any such Science or tonge as [etc.].
1576 A. Fleming tr. Erasmus in Panoplie Epist. 341 In that College it was his happie lucke, to reade in the open schooles in Latine that thereby he..procured to his hearers exceeding great profite by his learned lectures.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) ii. iii. 235 Say, we read Lectures to you, How youngly he began to serue his Countrey, How [etc.] . View more context for this quotation
1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. 280 b But now Readings..haue lost..their former authorities: for now the cases are long, obscure, and intricate..liker rather to Riddles than Lectures.
1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 5 Lectures on the Art of Architecture, which have laid before them the most necessary Rules.
1741 I. Watts Improvem. Mind i. ii. 32 Public or private Lectures' are such verbal Instructions as are given by a Teacher while the Learners attend in Silence.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing viii. 420 In this, as I have shown you in a former lecture, the statues of antiquity will afford you little assistance.
1827 Oxf. Univ. Guide 56 The Common Law School, where the Vinerian Professor reads his Lectures.
1847 R. W. Emerson Poems 80 I can spare the college-bell, And the learned lecture well.
b. Applied to discourses of the nature of sermons, either less formal in style than the ordinary sermon, or delivered on occasions other than those of the regular order of church services; formerly, a sermon preached by a ‘lecturer’ (see lecturer n. 2).In Scottish use, the term formerly denoted a discourse in the form of a continuous commentary on a chapter or other extended passage of Scripture.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > preaching > [noun] > instance of > lecture
lecture1556
lecture-sermon1703
1556 in J. G. Nichols Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 63 The xxv. day [of September, 1549] Cardmaker rede in Powlles, & sayd in hys lector that he cowde not rede there the xxvij. day.
1642 T. Lechford Plain Dealing (1867) 51 Upon the week dayes, there are Lectures in divers townes, and in Boston, upon Thursdays.
1675 R. Baxter Catholick Theol. ii. xii. 265 Our late Lectures against Popery.
1696 S. Sewall Diary 17 Sept. (1973) I. 356 Mr. Moodey preacheth the Lecture from Act. 13. 36.
1724 R. Wodrow Life J. Wodrow (1828) 191 Those useful and necessary exercises we in this church call Lectures.
1729 in G. Sheldon Hist. Deerfield, Mass. (1895) I. 459 His Custom was to Preach a Lecture once a month, and a Sermon the Friday before the Sacrament.
1773 M. Cutler Jrnl. 8 June in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life, Jrnls. & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) I. 41 Mr. Leslie preached the lecture, afternoon.
1895 A. R. MacEwen Life & Lett. J. Cairns xiii. 323 The lecture gave place to a sermon of a more or less hortatory type.
c. A course or series of lectures, given regularly according to the terms of their foundation; a foundation for a lecturer; a lectureship.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > [noun] > a discourse or lecture > course or series of
lecture1615
society > education > teaching > teacher > university or college teacher > [noun] > lecturer > position of
lecture1702
lectureship1707
lecturership1891
1615 G. Buck Third Universitie of Eng. xxx, in E. Howes Stow's Annales (new ed.) 980 In this [sc. Gresham] colledge are by this worthy Founder ordained seauen seuerall lectures of seauen seuerall Arts and faculties, to be read publikely.
?c1650 in A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses (1899) III. 149 Mr. Richard Gardner of this parish, a phisitian, gave for a catechisme lecture 200 li.
1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi iii. ii. v. 85/2 They gathered among themselves a convenient Salary to support him still amongst them: Though his Lecture were gone. At Earls Coln then he tarried, and prevailed for the Lecture to be settled the next Three Years in Towcester.
1730 Hoadley Life S. Clarke 11 C.'s Serm. I In the year 1704, He [Clarke] was call'd forth..to preach Mr. Boyle's Lecture, founded by that Honourable Gentleman, to assert and vindicate the Great Fundamentals of Natural and Revealed Religion.
1780 J. Bandinel (title) Eight Sermons preached..in the year 1780, at the Lecture founded by the late rev. and pious John Bampton M.A.
d. The audience or class attending a lecture.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > [noun] > group of students or pupils
class1560
siege1566
classis1643
reading party1781
lecture1848
study circle1882
seminar1889
study group1892
masterclass1901
1848 J. H. Newman Loss & Gain 7 He coloured, closed his book, and instanter sent the whole lecture out of the room.
5. † b. figurative. A ‘lesson’, an instructive counsel or example. Obsolete.
a. The instruction given by a teacher to a pupil or class at a particular time; a lesson. Obsolete except in University use: see 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > means of teaching > [noun] > a lesson
lore971
learning1362
lessona1398
leara1400
lecture?1542
document1549
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xxii. sig. F4v Let scholes be mainteyned, and lectures to be had in them of the .iij. tongys, Hebrew, Greke & Latyne.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Lectur, or readynge in scholes, called the kinges lectur, or common lectur.
a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) ii. f. 31 These bookes, I would haue him read now, a good deale at euery lecture.
1597 1st Pt. Returne fr. Parnassus ii. i. 793 Wilt please you, Sir, to sit downe and repeate youre lecture?
a1616 W. Shakespeare Taming of Shrew (1623) iii. i. 24 You'll leaue his Lecture when I am in tune? View more context for this quotation
1644 J. Milton Of Educ. 4 But here the main skill and groundwork will be, to temper them such lectures and explanations upon every opportunity.
1765 S. Foote Commissary i. 14 The man..attends every morning to give him a lecture upon speaking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > advice > [noun] > instructive example
lecture1575
1575 G. Gascoigne Glasse of Gouernem. i. v. sig. Ciiv I saw a frosty bearded scholemaster instructing of four lusty young men erewhyle as we came in, but if my iudgement do not fayle me, I may chaunce to read some of them another lecture.
1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. E3v And wilt thou be the schoole where lust shall learne? Must he in thee read lectures of such shame? View more context for this quotation
1624 J. Smith Gen. Hist. Virginia iii. xi. 89 He was againe to learne his Lecture by experience.
1630 Bp. J. Hall Occas. Medit. Proem Euery thing that we see, reades vs new lectures of Wisdome, and Pietie.
1699 J. Potter Archæologiæ Græcæ II. iii. iv. 23 Achilles's Shield..is a Lecture of Philosophy.
1745 Matrimony, Pro & Con. 4 Gew~gaws of Dress are Lectures of the Mind.
1755 E. Young Centaur ii. 77 Heaven means to make one half of the species a moral lecture to the other.
6. An admonitory speech; esp. one delivered by way of reproof or correction; ‘a magisterial reprimand’ (Johnson). to read (a person) a lecture.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > rebuke or reproof > [noun] > a lengthy
lecture1604
jobation1687
ear-bending1930
ear-bashing1945
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. i. 67 So by my former lecture and aduise.
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 337 I haue heard him read many Lectors against it. View more context for this quotation
1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Peter (ii. 5) 555 Often have you heard how much a superstitious wife, by her certaine lectures, hath wrought upon her Christian husband.
a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Sea Voy. iv. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Bbbbb3v/2 Ye have read me a faire Lecture, And put a spell upon my tongue for fay[n]ing.
1661 E. Hickeringill Jamaica 85 I am not awed..with the dreadfull Catechisme of a Curtain Lecture.
1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 306 Which moral Lecture is out of its Place.
1710 J. Addison Tatler No. 243. ⁋4 He was then lying under the Discipline of a Curtain-Lecture.
1713 J. Addison Cato ii. i. 29 Numidia will be blest by Cato's Lectures.
1732 T. Lediard tr. J. Terrasson Life Sethos II. viii. 229 Our young bridegroom receiv'd a terrible lecture.
1846 D. Jerrold (title) Mrs. Caudle's Curtain-lectures.
1853 W. M. Thackeray Eng. Humourists iii. 138 As confidential as a curtain-lecture.
1867 F. Parkman Jesuits in N. Amer. xix. 283 The missionary answered with a lecture on the duty of forgiveness.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
lecture agency n.
ΚΠ
1925 A. Huxley Let. 25 Jan. (1969) 240 You suggest lectures for lucre in the U.S.A.:—I have had several offers from various lecture agencies... The fatigue and the boredom of a lecture tour frighten me.
1949 D. Thomas Let. 1 Dec. in Sel. Lett. (1966) 340 He said that the Lecture Agencies..have nowhere near his own acquaintanceship with the institutions.
1966 N. Nicolson in H. Nicolson Diaries & Lett. (1966) 131 Colston Leigh Inc. was the lecture-agency.
lecture agent n.
ΚΠ
1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age lviii. 527 I am a business man. I am a lecture-agent.
1949 D. Thomas Let. 1 Dec. in Sel. Lett. (1966) 341 Surely a letter from Brinnin, acting as my secretary & Lecture-Agent,..would mean something to the Treasury.
lecture audience n.
ΚΠ
1943 W. Lewis Let. 5 Dec. (1963) 372 Seeing the gas-shortage whittles down all lecture-audiences, I had quite a lot of people.
1974 M. Fido R. Kipling 64/2 ‘Here's poetry at last!’ he [sc. Professor Masson] burst out to his lecture audience on the day ‘Danny Deever’ appeared.
lecture-book n.
ΚΠ
1857 E. B. Pusey Real Presence (1869) i. 111 The altered confession [of Augsburg]..became the Lecture-book in Lutheran states.
lecture circuit n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > means of teaching > [noun] > teaching-tour > lecture tour
lecture-tour1897
lecture circuit1965
1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1057/3 Well-financed readings on large lecture-circuits..are staple.
1967 O. Wynd Walk Softly v. 62 He sounded like the agent for a lecture circuit telling me that I was standing on the threshold of great things.
lecture course n.
ΚΠ
1890 H. Frederic Lawton Girl 150 It may take the form of..a lecture course.
1956 Nature 10 Mar. 455/2 The American graduate student is usually forced to complete a relatively large number of lecture-courses.
lecture-goer n.
ΚΠ
1897 B'ham Inst. Mag. Nov. 214 Pity her sadness, ye happy lecture-goers and class-attenders.
1961 M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) xii. 163 Oxford undergraduates aren't the inveterate lecture-goers and note-takers that American college students are.
lecture-hall n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > [noun] > a discourse or lecture > place where lecture is given
lecture-hall1865
society > education > place of education > educational buildings > [noun] > college or university buildings > lecture or disputation rooms
school hallc1450
public school1582
golgotha1726
lecture-room1817
lecture-theatre1849
lecture-hall1967
1865 Atlantic Monthly 15 369 The platform of the lecture-hall has been common ground for..all our social..organizations.
1870 ‘F. Fern’ Ginger-snaps 179 I get a comfortable seat in church,..or lecture-hall.
1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age xlv. 406 It provided for the erection of certain buildings for the university, dormitories, lecture halls, museums, libraries, [etc.].
1961 Bible (New Eng.) Acts xix. 9 He..continued to hold discussions daily in the lecture-hall of Tyrannus.
1967 N. S. M. Cox & M. W. Grose Organization Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer iii. 70 The number of minutes that..it takes him to walk there from college or lecture~hall.
lecture-hearing n.
ΚΠ
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. ii. 152 Placing all in Faith together with lecture-hearing, hymn-singing,..and other means of strengthening it.
lecture-lamp n.
ΚΠ
1891 T. C. Hepworth Bk. Lantern 270 A lecture lamp has recently been introduced, which not only comprises a shade light for the lecturer's desk [etc.].
lecture list n.
ΚΠ
1965 Listener 4 Nov. 700/2 It was the first time that either of these names had appeared on the Oxford lecture list.
lecture note n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > study > [noun] > lecture notes
lecture note1892
society > communication > record > written record > [noun] > notes > specific
field notes1687
note1693
aide-mémoire1846
lecture note1892
bordereau1897
worksheet1925
FYI1986
1892 W. Wallace tr. G. W. F. Hegel Logic (ed. 2) 426 Cf. Werke, vii. i. 314 (*lecture-note).
1920 G. Saintsbury Notes on Cellar-bk. i. 2 An ordinary ‘exercise book’..devoted to base purposes of lecture-notes.
1944 Mind 53 269 Sometimes one gets the impression of a collection of lecture-notes.
1973 E. Taylor Serpent under It (1974) iv. 60 Could you continue to teach in a place where..your students knew you had cribbed your lecture notes?
lecture-room n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > educational buildings > [noun] > lecture room
auditory1606
theatre1613
lecture-room1817
society > education > place of education > educational buildings > [noun] > college or university buildings > lecture or disputation rooms
school hallc1450
public school1582
golgotha1726
lecture-room1817
lecture-theatre1849
lecture-hall1967
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. x. 219 Numerous and respectable audiences,..honored my lecture-rooms with their attendance.
1829 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) III. 104 The Lecture Rooms..to be provided with desks.
1936 Discovery Oct. 301/2 The various buildings which housed the sectional lecture-rooms.
lecture-table n.
ΚΠ
1854 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) III. 166 A small room for the use of the Lecturer, with a separate entrance to the Lecture-Table.
lecture-theatre n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > educational buildings > [noun] > college or university buildings > lecture or disputation rooms
school hallc1450
public school1582
golgotha1726
lecture-room1817
lecture-theatre1849
lecture-hall1967
1849 W. Allingham Diary 30 June (1907) iii. 48 We..passed into the lecture-theatre.
1854 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) III. 168 The Museum, and Lecture-Theatre remain as at present.
1969 Listener 1 May 594/2 The ordinary university lecturer is no more exciting on film than he is in the lecture theatre.
1973 Nature 28 Sept. 225/1 Above the blackboards in the main physics lecture theatre of a Scottish university where I once worked there used to be written in large letters: ‘Truth will in the end always flow in the direction of the greatest speculative reflection.’
lecture-tour n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > means of teaching > [noun] > teaching-tour > lecture tour
lecture-tour1897
lecture circuit1965
1897 ‘M. Twain’ Following Equator xv. 160 I had a curiosity to know about that man's lecture-tour and last moments.
1913 R. Brooke Let. 24 July (1968) 486 The most unpopular person in Canada is Winston. Ever since his lecture-tour.
1921 R. Fry Let. 19 Dec. (1972) II. 519 I have just got back to London after my lecture tour in the north of England.
1952 ‘J. Tey’ Singing Sands ix. 138 I hope Mr. Brown doesn't go lecture~touring in the States.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 2 May 237/2 An actress whom he meets while on a lecture-tour in South America.
1973 ‘R. Lewis’ Of Singular Purpose i. 5 This lecture tour in America..is the first of many recognitions, I'm sure of it.
C2. † lecture-sermon n. Obsolete a sermon of the character of a lecture, or forming part of a set course.
lecture-day n. ‘the appointed day for the periodical lecture of the municipality or parish; in the New England colonies it seems to have been usually Thursday’ ( Cent. Dict.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > a day or twenty-four hours > [noun] > special or ceremonial days
Easter terma1387
station day1560
lecture-day1616
scarlet-day1632
charter-day1817
field day1821
Thing-day1875
society > faith > worship > liturgical year > feast, festival > [noun] > with lecture
lecture-day1616
1616 S. Hieron Dignitie of Preaching (new ed.) in Wks. (1620) I. 589 Let not the lecture-day, now when the sermon is ended, be made a day of voluptuousnesse.
1677 in I. Mather Prevalency Prayer (1864) 264 (note) It was agreed that Lecture-day, July 25th, 1677, should be kept as a Fast.
1753 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1884) XXI. 153 The meeting adjourned to the next Lecture Day.
1779 E. Parkman Diary 94 Mr. Badcock has been with me to speak about ye Singing..on proposed Lecture day.
lecture-recital n. a lecture illustrated by music.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > a performance > [noun] > lecture with music
lecture-recital1961
informance1970
1961 Observer 26 Nov. 28/1 (advt.) Lecture-Recitals..at Royal Academy of Music.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > preaching > [noun] > instance of > lecture
lecture1556
lecture-sermon1703
1703 S. Sewall Diary 5 Aug. (1973) I. 490 Mr. Thomas Bridge preaches his first Lecture-Sermon.
1736 J. Eliot (title) The Two Witnesses... Being the Substance of a Lecture-Sermon, preach'd at the North-Society in Lyme, October 29, 1735.
a1751 J. Bampton Will in J. Bandinel 8 Serm. (1780) I direct..that..a Lecturer be yearly chosen..to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
lecturev.
/ˈlɛktʃə/, U.S. /ˈlɛk(t)ʃər/ 1. intransitive. To deliver a lecture or lectures. Also †to lecture it.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > [verb (intransitive)] > lecture or discourse
readc1300
instruct1510
lecturea1592
prelect1745
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > make a speech [verb (intransitive)] > discourse or lecture
carpa1375
movec1400
descant1536
discourse1547
lecturea1592
homilize1624
dissert1657
lecturize1661
pronounce1663
to hold forth1668
to hold out1689
sermonize1753
dissertate1766
a1592 R. Greene Frier Bacon (1594) sig. E3 Men that may lecture it in Germanie, To all the doctors of your Belgicke schools.
1637–50 J. Row Hist. Kirk Scotl. (Wodrow Soc.) 320 Mr. Robert Bruce,..they now haveing no minister, almost everie day, either preaching in the morning, or lectureing at even.
1774 O. Goldsmith Retaliation 86 But now he is gone, and we want a detector, Our Dodds shall be pious, our Kenricks shall lecture.
1861 Sat. Rev. 21 Dec. 631 No one, we should think, ever lectured at one of the common institutions with~out seeing the most absurd burlesque of his discourse in the next week's local paper.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People iii. §6. 146 The Oxford Dominicans lectured on theology in the nave of their new Church.
2.
a. transitive. To deliver lectures to or before (an audience); to instruct by lecture. †Also, to stir up by lectures or sermons.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > [verb (transitive)] > teach orally or lecture
readOE
catechize1623
lecture1681
the mind > language > speech > speech-making > deliver (a speech) [verb (transitive)] > deliver a discourse or lecture to
lecture1681
sermonize1802
pi-jaw1891
1681 R. L'Estrange Relaps'd Apostate (ed. 3) 48 They set to work a Preaching Ministry, and Lectur'd up the people into a Gospel-frame.
1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 249 It is but a Week ago that Simonet was still lectur'd in the Civil Law.
1744 A. Pope Epist. to Several Persons ii. 29 So Philomedé, lect'ring all mankind On the soft Passion.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations II. v. i. 346 The teacher..while he is lecturing his students. View more context for this quotation
1785 W. Cowper Task vi. 182 From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature's progress when she lectures man In heavenly truth.
1850 A. Jameson Legends Monastic Orders 155 He was in the habit of lecturing his monks every morning from some passage of Scripture.
b. To read out (tales) to (an audience).Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1814 H. F. Cary tr. Dante Vision III. xv. 118 Another..lectured them Old tales of Troy.
3. To address with some severity, or at some length, on the subject of conduct, behaviour, or the like; to admonish, rebuke, reprimand.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > rebuke or reproof > rebuke or reprove [verb (transitive)] > at length
job1666
lecture1706
1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 172 The most ordinary Folly incident to old Men, is to be perpetually Lecturing Youth.
1779 F. Burney Lett. Jan. I have been..plentifully lectured already upon my vexation.
1818 in J. Maclean Hist. Coll. N. Jersey (1877) II. 175 This morning we suspended one student, and three others were lectured before the Faculty.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xix. 367 Those whom he had lectured withdrew full of resentment. The imputation which he had thrown on them was unjust.
1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xlv. 203 Having lectured Tom well on the importance of sobriety.
1882 J. A. Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. i. vi. 70 He [Becket] lectured the bishops for their want of understanding.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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