1540 T. Cranmer Prol. or Pref. in Bible (Great) sig. ✠vi Where as ye fynde this sygne..it betekeneth a diuersyte and difference of readyng bytwene the Hebrues and the Chaldees in the same place.

1557 Bible (Whittingham) (title page) The Newe Testament..With the arguments,..also diuersities of readings.

1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. ⁋15 They..had rather haue their iudgements at libertie in differences of readings.

1654 P. Heylyn Theologia Veterum vi. viii. 208 He caused this word..to be put in the margin as a different reading.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 281 If the Reading be not corrupted, this Oracle was given Olymp. LXXVI, 1.

1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. 189 But this supposition..will not prove the two readings genuine.

1748 P. Whitfield Diss. Hebrew Vowel-points ix. 182 Had this marginal Word been only another reading, in a different Copy, it would have assuredly been put into the Text.

1790 R. Porson Lett. to Travis 230 The Evangelistaries and Lectionaries have often transfused their readings into the other MSS.

1823 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto VII viii. 69 ‘Fierce loves and faithless wars’—I am not sure If this be the right reading.

1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest II. App. 571 The readings of the manuscripts are so different that it is hard to tell their exact meaning.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 582/1 In this work he first brought before English students a careful collation of the readings of the chief MSS.

1958 Shakespeare Q. 9 427 If..the editor would correct the text, remark the various readings..examine..conjectures and supply..omissions, even the compiler of the famous English Dictionary would be hard pressed to meet this optimistic deadline.

1992 C. Barber in C. Blank Lang. & Civilization I. 206 No departures from this text have been permitted. If the reading of a line is doubtful, that line is omitted from the study, not emended.

1624 R. Montagu Gagg for New Gospell? xxv. 201 Iacob saith, Gen. 48. 16. The Angell which redeemed mee (you read, deliuereth mee) from all euill, blesse these Lads: where, first, you bely your owne reading.

1631 W. Twisse Discov. D. Iacksons Vanitie ii. xv. 531 This is my answer, following the course of your owne reading of the place, whereas Piscator blames the vulgar translation in this place which you follow: [etc.].

1680 E. Fowler Libertas Evangelica iii. xvi. 267 According to Episcopius his reading of these latter words, it is not the Church that is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth.

1719 A. Sykes Modest Plea Baptismal & Script.-notion of Trinity 262 By Writers of Antiquity, you mean here only some Late Writers of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries; whose Authority in this Case is nothing; and whose manner of understanding the Text, is (as I have shown above) inconsistent even with their own Reading of the words.

1787 A. Young Jrnl. 30 July in Trav. France (1792) i. 37 There is a species of countenance here so horridly bad, that it is impossible to be mistaken in one's reading.

1814 Morning Herald 14 Mar. in J. Agate These were Actors (1943) 31 Mr. Kean thought fit to leave out the whole of the first line in this declaration... This, in the saucy jargon of the day, may be called ‘a new reading’.

1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. x. 94 By-the-by, that very word, Reading, in its critical use, always charms me. An actress's Reading of a chambermaid, a dancer's Reading of a hornpipe, a singer's Reading of a song, a marine-painter's Reading of the sea, the kettle-drum's Reading of an instrumental passage, are phrases ever youthful and delightful.

1882 P. Fitzgerald Recreat. Lit. Man I. vi. 189 His reading of Balzac's Mercadet..appeared somewhat airy and not tragic enough.

1929 A. Carse Orchestral Conducting iii. i. 96 The personality of a conductor, the individuality of his readings..count for more than technical correctness.

1969 Listener 13 Mar. 360/2 The structure of his film implies one reading of Isadora's life, while its content implies a quite contrary interpretation.

1991 Classic CD Dec. 104/4 We return to the European tradition for Fournier's strongly emotional reading of Elgar's Cello Concerto.

1772 Philos. Trans. 1771 (Royal Soc.) 61 400 (table) Observations of equal Altitudes of the Sun for the Time... Reading off... Mean noon per clock.

1809 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 99 240 Taking a mean of the different readings-off for the true position of the wire.

1833 J. F. W. Herschel Astronomy ii. 83 The division and fractional part thus noted..is to be set down as the reading of the limb.

1833 J. F. W. Herschel Astronomy §198 The same constant error of graduation, which depends on the initial and final readings off alone.

1848 T. De Quincey Final Memorials C. Lamb in N. Brit. Rev. Nov. 208 That pure light of benignity which was the predominant reading on his features.

1869 Sci. Opinion 9 Jan. 174/1 Our third thermometer stood..at 45°..and its reading has not been taken into account.

1900 Trans. Amer. Microsc. Soc. 1899 21 232 A reading of the amount was made..and the tube returned to the rack.

1946 Happy Landings July 12/1 Failure to..top-up brake pressure..and to check the voltage readings of batteries, are common examples.

1995 D. W. Smith & K. K. Rusch Star Trek Voyager: Escape xi. 114 He checked the sensor readings.

1946 Man. Operation Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Computation Lab.) iii. 53 Figure 17 shows the reading contacts controlled by the reading pins and the tape.

1949 E. C. Berkeley Giant Brains iv. 44 The reading of a hole in a column of a punch card is done by a brush of several strands of copper wire pressed against a metal roller.

1964 J. Z. Young Model of Brain xiii. 217 We can thus say that the vertical lobe system is necessary for ‘reading-out’ of the memory as well as for ‘reading-in’.

2003 J. Sapp Evol. Biol. xvi. 197 The ribosomal particles move from end to end of the messenger RNA like the reading head of a tape recorder passing over the tape.

2005 Physical Rev. B. 71 144501-1 The scheme can be easily extended to a three-qubit system and allows the reading out of the qubits' states while the system remains in the ground state.

1816 Man. Syst. Brit. & Foreign School Soc. 45 At a signal given by the general monitor, to lead his pupils to the place where the reading-circle is to be formed.

1829 Times 3 Aug. 6/1 His ‘Hymns to the Night’, and his ‘Heinrich von Ofterdingen’, a romance, have probably had their fair share of perusal in the reading circles of Germany.

1900 Daily Iowa State Press 9 Apr. 2/1 What with your club and your lodge and your scientific society and your reading circle and your directors' meeting the children see about as much of you as you do of them.

2003 N. Rush Mortals xxiv. 346 When the reading circles Kerekang was hectoring the locals to join met in the kgotlas.

1786 Edinb. Advertiser 27 Oct. 270/1 Reading class for young ladies..in consequence of frequent application, Mr Scott has opened a class for Young Ladies.

1838 M. Fuller Woman in 19th Cent. (1862) 347 The forwardness of their minds has induced me to take both into my reading-class.

1929 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 6 Feb. 11/2 Ha! Ha!..to the foot of the reading class you go.

1994 Our Schools, our Selves Nov. 46 I try to keep him out of remedial reading classes, where he would be given drill sheets and refuse to do them.

a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) iii. v. 55 A Reading-Day Frights French away, The Benchers dare speak Latin.

1770 Brit. Biogr. VI. 40 He told Dr. Pope, that in all the time he enjoyed the Astronomy Professor's place, he never missed one reading day.

1868 All Year Round 11 Apr. 425 I, in my capacity of governess, encouraged them,..and at least once a week we had a ‘reading day’, as we called it.

1931 P. Smith in Jrnl. Educ. Sociol. 4 445 I hope that some day we shall have a Reading Day, Writing Day and Arithmetic Day..that we may remember for what the schools were originally founded.

2007 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 6 May b1 Friday had been a ‘reading day’ for California students, meaning classes were not held so students could prepare for finals.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair lxii. 557 Jaunty young Cambridge-men..going for a reading excursion.

1891 Times 26 Oct. 7/4 He has gone on a ‘reading excursion’ somewhere, and has married the slatternly daughter of his Irish landlady.

2007 Observer (Nexis) 15 Apr. (Review section) 28 Covers will be the very model of discretion—and certainly won't require brown paper jackets for public reading excursions.

1799 T. McKenna Mem. 37 Every body knows the importance of newspapers in forming the mind of that numerous class in our country, who have not leisure or reading habits beyond the daily occurrences.

1832 N. Amer. Rev. July 179 The chief cause..of the depression of the drama may be traced to the more extended cultivation and reading habits of the public.

1906 Elem. School Teacher 6 315 There is the necessity of forming the reading habit at the reading age of fourth and fifth grade.

2001 Child Educ. Oct. (Best Books 2001 Suppl.) 7/1 As Children's Laureate what will you do to encourage the reading habit?

1578 R. Day Bk. Christian Prayers 84 (margin) Doctor diuine at last: thy reading houre is past.

1776 S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleasure I. iii. 6 'Tis true, I admire the Lord of Chesterfield: his epistles are, in the reading hour, always in my hand.

1813 J. Austen Let. Sept. (1995) 227 Fanny & I are to go on with Modern Europe together, but hitherto have advanced only 25 Pages, something or other has always happened to delay or curtail the reading hour.

1904 School Rev. 12 721 Above all, the reading hour should be a time of unmixed pleasure.

2007 Evening Standard (Nexis) 7 Mar. b2 The Chancellor set out a vision of family policy under a Brown premiership—including..inviting parents into primary schools for reading hours.

1779 Catal. Minerals, Ores, Stones &c. R. Ramsay 4 A pair of reading Lamps, and a Match-Lock.

1866 W. Collins Armadale II. iv. iii. 304 He rose, and suddenly removed the shade from the reading lamp, so that the light fell on my face.

1991 Descant Fall 115 The gooseneck reading lamp at the head of the bed was pushed against the wall.

c1876 Draft-bk. Centennial Carriages 119 The vehicle called ‘Empress of Austria's Brougham’ is noticeable for very complete and interesting details, such as ventilator at the top, a reading-light at the back, and a reader latch.

1933 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 76/1 The ordinary bulb in the reading light was removed and a photoflood bulb substituted.

1998 Canal Boat & Inland Waterways June 30/3 Evidence of the degree of thought that has gone into this boat can be seen by the fact that a reading light is provided where the single would be located when it is used that way.

1846 O. S. Fowler Memory & Intellect. Improvem. (ed. 20) 189 Private libraries are eminently useful, but public vastly more so. The poor require reading material equally with the rich.

1885 Overland Monthly Apr. 494/1 I visited the library and reading room—comfortable, well-furnished apartments, with plenty of good reading material.

1939 Ada (Okla.) Evening News 14 May 6/1 Eager rural school pupils..received a large number of Sunday school papers and other good reading material on the very last day of the school year.

1994 This Mag. (Toronto) Sept. 41/2 All through my adolescence I was lucky enough to be exposed to a huge range of reading materials.

1704 R. Burridge Gazetteer's Select Hist. Europe Pref. sig. a7 Places which the Author thereof does not make to be above a Mile or two distant from one another in the reading Matter, are by measuring the Distances in his Maps above 20 or 30 Miles asunder.

1818 Times 23 May 5/3 Whoever views the quantity of reading-matter in these our columns..would be sure..that there is no scarcity of..matter..calculated to attract and satisfy intellectual and scientific readers.

1972 ‘E. Ferrars’ Breath of Suspicion xi. 185 I'm leaving the choice of some reading-matter for you to Bernard.

2007 Daily Record (Nexis) 23 May (Features section) 17 As the socialite prepares for her prison sentence she's determined to get hold of some healthy reading matter.

1608–9 Vestry Minutes St. Saviour Southwark (Greater London Rec. Office) 12 Mar. MS P92/SAV/450 The readinge pulpit shalbe also removed & placed by the other.

1848 I. H. Parker Archit. Notes Churches in City of York 45 in Mem. Illustr. Hist. & Antiq. of County & City of York On the south side is a recess for the reading pulpit.

2001 Interiors Mar. 31/2 The..stained glass windows..became the background for the bimah, or reading pulpit.

1901 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 12 294 The reading rate varies greatly with the individual and with the subject matter.

1930 Classical Jrnl. 26 582 Since the average reading rate we recommend is four pages an hour, he has a little less than two thousand hours to be devoted to reading during his next three years.

1995 Appl. Linguistics 16 22 The Nelson Denny Reading Test..measures vocabulary, comprehension and reading rate in English.

1926 Ada (Okla.) Evening News 3 May 2/5 At the annual meeting of the Kindergarten Union..research into ‘reading-readiness’ will be discussed for the first time.

1956 H. C. Lindgren Educ. Psychol. ix. 236 Many schools postpone the teaching of reading for first-graders who do not demonstrate ‘reading readiness’ on standardized tests.

2007 Washington Post (Nexis) 5 May a 17 Priority should be placed on policies designed to enhance early-childhood learning and reading-readiness.

1888 Times 9 Aug. 6/6 What a sense of security in the systematized reading of the home reading scheme.

1917 J. W. Emery Library, School, & Child 188 The teacher makes out a ‘Reading Scheme’, showing the size and standard of his classes, and the books he is planning to have them read during the year.

1993 Independent on Sunday 4 Apr. (Review Suppl.) 38/3 And for consumers brought up on pick-and-mix reading schemes, reading is still fun.

1744 in Howe's Serm. Several Occasions p. cxxxv The Reading society of [Leicester].

1890 G. B. Shaw in Star 28 Feb. 2/4 I repaired to the London Institution to see ‘The Shakespere Reading Society’ recite ‘Much Ado’.

1988 Equinox (Camden East, Ont.) Nov. 62/1 The..reading societies, which sprang up a decade after the settlers arrived in Alberta..encouraged literacy and cultural activity.

2005 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 12 Dec. 9 Hull politicians have called on the city council to save a popular children's reading society.

1730 Catal. Dwelling-house Gen. Stuart 11 A mahogany reading Stand.

1885 M. Collins Prettiest Woman in Warsaw I. xiii. 224 Beside the bed was a reading-stand.

2001 E. M. Göknar tr. O. Pamuk My Name is Red (2002) v. 24 The Book of the Soul..stands open on the folding X-shaped reading stand.

1749 Promised Justif. 15 in Apol. Conduct T. C. Phillips II. He..sent it [sc. a large Cloaths Chest] after her; with a small Reading-Table.

1855 A. Trollope Warden ix. 134 A huge arm-chair fitted up with candle-sticks, a reading table, a drawer, and other paraphernalia.

1993 Wall St. Jrnl. 19 Feb. r16/1 His restaurant is an unpretentious place of plastic and metal furniture, though it does have a reading table where a diner can pick up a copy of Forbes magazine to browse through.

1574 J. Whitgift Def. Aunswere to Admon. xiii. i. 574 In deede if a man sleepe the Sermon time, and wake the reading time..I will not denie but he may be more edifyed at the simple reading, than at the Sermon.

1666 W. Dugdale Origines Juridiciales lxi. 202/2 These Students, heretofore used, in the Reading times, to carry the Reader's meat unto the Bench Table.

1795 J. O'Keeffe Life's Vagaries i. i. 5 It's now my reading time; then I have my embroidery; then I must practice my musick; then say my French lesson.

1875 A. M. Diaz Schoolmaster's Trunk i. 7 Oh! we couldn't get much reading time... If 'tisn't one thing, 'tis another, and sometimes both.

1993 Amer. Libraries Apr. 334 (caption) The joys—and motivational value—of intergenerational reading time.

1842 St. Petersburg Eng. Rev. 4 419 There was some very sad story about the elder Miss Lowe and a tutor from St. John's College, Cambridge, who came to Bonn on a reading tour.

1921 Times 13 Oct. 13/5 A more cheerful memory of Boston in the 'sixties is the arrival of Dickens on his reading tour.

1999 M. Finnan Sinclair Saga vi. 73 In the summer of 1996 I set out on a province-wide reading tour connected with my book on Oak Island.

1932 Commonw. Law Rep.: High Court Austral. 47 15 This reading down of the sub-section cannot affect the interpretation of the general powers.

1979 Times of India 30 Oct. 4/4 The doctrine of ‘reading down’ was permissible only when the court was satisfied that the legislature had inadvertently used a general expression.

1998 S. Kentridge in Constit. Reform in U.K. (Univ. Cambr. Centre Public Law) vii. 69 The executive, as litigant, will..in most instances prefer a ‘reading down’ of contested litigation to a declaration of incompatibility.

2009 Times (Nexis) 3 Nov. 69 The claimant sought..the reading down and reinterpretation of section 8 of the 2002 Act.

1906 Elem. School Teacher 6 315 There is the necessity of forming the reading habit at the reading age of fourth and fifth grade.

1952 I. H. Anderson & W. F. Dearborn Psychol. of Teaching Reading i. 10 If the reading age is appreciably below the mental age, the child is regarded as a reading problem.

1991 Times Educ. Suppl. 26 Apr. 1/4 Fifth-formers need a reading age of more than 17 to understand some parts of the history GCSE examination, according to recent research.

OE Ælfric 1st Let. to Wulfstan (Corpus Cambr. 190) in B. Fehr Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics (1914) 126 Mæssepreost sceal habban..sangboc and rædingboc and saltere .

c1350 (a1333) William of Shoreham Poems (1902) 47 Þe bisschop, wenne he ordreþ þes, Þe redyng bok hym takeþ.

1762 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy V. xlii. 140 The Old Test. being the reading-book of the highest class.

1840 (title) The Church Scholar's reading book.

1994 S. Braude Mpho's Search x. 59 She handed out reading books... Mpho did not have any problems here. He could even read the Bible.

1745 C. Cock Catal. Houshold Furnit. W. Holman 18 A compass reading chair, on castors, and brass rod.

1803 T. Sheraton Cabinet Dict. 17 Arm-chair for a library, or a reading chair... These are intended to make the exercise easy, and for the convenience of taking down a note or quotation... The reader places himself with his back to the front of the chair, and rests his arms on the top yoke.

1853 A. J. Downing Architect. Country Houses xii. 426 Fig. 218 is a reading-chair of a simple and good form,..having a desk for a book on one arm, and a stand for a candle on the other—both being..easily lifted out.., when not in use.

1977 J. Hodgins Invention of World iii. 44 The tall green reading chair that had recipes..shoved under its cushion.

2007 Hanover (Ont.) Post (Nexis) 4 May a8 That rocking chair just might double as a reading chair.

1916 Chicago Herald in W. G. Bleyer Types of News Writing xv. 236/1 Now if Johnnie is a pupil in the elementary department of the school of education at the University of Chicago he is sent to the reading clinic of Dr. C. Truman Gray.

1924 Educ. Res. Bull. 3 65/1 Miss Jenkins is conducting a reading clinic at the University, to which are brought all children who present unusual reading problems.

1975 Lang. for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxvi. 514 There should be a reading clinic or remedial centre in every L.E.A.

2007 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 20 Apr. (Zone) NC-1 An integral part of Bales' goal to improve comprehension has involved reading clinics from a private company.

1769 Eng. Displayed I. 113/2 Her ladyship's reading closet is excessively elegant.

1784 T. Tyers Conversat. Polit. & Familiar p. vi As these sheets are past through the press, they are welcome to the reading closets of old and new acquaintance.

1800 R. M. Roche Nocturnal Visit II. iii. 45 The reading-closet adjoining Miss Barclay's dressing-room.

1886 Referee 10 Jan. 1/2 I was getting an honest..living in the composing-room or the reading-closet.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. vii. [Aeolus] 114 Through a lane of clanking drums he made his way towards Nannetti's reading closet.

1965 I. Stone Those who Love 44 The attraction for Abigail was its reading closet, into which was built a comfortable desk and bookshelves, with a window looking over the gardens.

1776 London Rev. Eng. & Foreign Lit. July 78 I am much pleased with the expedient, suggested by your correspondents of the reading-club in London.

1877 S. O. Jewett Deephaven 244 We had to come away and leave..the reading-club and the childrens' [sic] hospital.

1960 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 9 June 10/1 Boys and girls are asked to join a reading club sponsored each summer by the Coshocton public library.

1985 N. Thrift in D. Gregory & J. Urry Social Relations & Spatial Structures xv. 385 Some of these may have consulted the Encyclopédie in the reading clubs of the area.

2002 Independent 30 Apr. i. 16/2 Reading clubs have become for the new century what singles bars were to the 1970s.

1830 C. Wordsworth Jrnl. 19 Sept. in J. H. Overton & E. Wordsworth Christopher Wordsworth (1888) i. 51 Here I am, lying on my sofa, with my drab reading-coat on.

1895 W. R. W. Stephens Life & Lett. E. A. Freeman in Times 10 May 13/1 A gentleman of the hunt, deceived by his somewhat shabby exterior..shaggy beard..shabby reading coat and..large, loose, ill-fitting garments..took him for an over-zealous bailiff.

1847 P. Sadler Manuel de Conversations Françaises et Anglaises (ed. 2) 225/1 I want a copy of Shakspeare's works, have you one? Yes, sir, do you wish a library-copy, or only a reading-copy?

1928 C. J. Furness Walt Whitman's Workshop i. 27 He wrote on the cover of an improvised reading copy of Shakespeare's ‘Richard II’ which he made by tearing the leaves of the play out of a complete volume and binding them in wrapping paper.

1994 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 30 Jan. 22/4 Advance copies (..usually sent out months before publication in very small quantities but occasionally released en masse, as promotional ‘reading copies’).

1637 P. Heylyn Antidotum Lincolniense ii. viii. 121 You would now shew an Altar neere the Reading Deske, in hope the Reading Deske may one day become an Altar.

1789 Times 3 Apr. 2/1 (advt.) Repository of Designs for every Article of Household Furniture..displaying a great Variety of patterns for Chairs..Library Tables, Reading Desks, Chests of Drawers.

1806 Times 21 Nov. 3/4 The villains..made off with two of the Minister's surplices, the sacrament linen, the gold fringe belonging to the pulpit, and the reading desk.

2003 M. Belson On the Press p. xi After about two years as a compositor apprentice I was transferred to a reading-desk.

1961 F. H. C. Crick et al. in Nature 30 Dec. 1229/2 If the code is made of triplets, any long sequence of bases can be read correctly in one way, but incorrectly (by starting at the wrong point) in two different ways, depending whether the ‘reading frame’ is shifted one place to the right or one place to the left.

1981 E. D. Hanson Understanding Evol. iv. 103 Shifts in the reading frame of codon triplets, like nucleotide substitutions, may or may not cause a detectable mutation.

2004 S. D. Smith in M. L. Rice & S. F. Warren Developmental Lang. Disorders xiii. 347 Mutations that are particularly disruptive..include insertions or deletions of DNA, which change the ‘reading frame’ of the codons so that the amino acid sequence that results is incorrect.

1668 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 3 631 Having for divers years painfully search'd after the way of grinding Glasses not-spherical,..he lately..produced before the..Society certain Specimina of that invention, which were a Telescope, a Reading, and two Burning-Glasses.

1748 Philos. Trans. 1747 (Royal Soc.) 44 ii. 632 Place the magnifier before the object... It would be both difficult and inconvenient to hold it like a reading glass in the hand.

1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xli. 405 The green lamp is lighted, his reading-glasses lie upon the desk.

1940 D. Powell Angels on Toast xxii. 256 Mrs. Vane tucked away her reading glass and book in her bag at sight of Truesdale.

1997 Independent 24 June (Suppl.) 9/4 Long-sightedness in middle age..is caused by the lens itself becoming weaker and can only be corrected by reading glasses.

1906 N.Y. Times 25 Mar. sm1/1 Plans were made to establish reading groups, not only in St. Petersburg, but in all the large places in Russia.

1978 S. Maitland After Ball was Over in Fireweed Oct. 83 You're one to talk. Who wouldn't join a Marxist reading group because he was an antiquated masculist, who couldn't recognise the glory of women in struggle?

1995 Minnesota Monthly Jan. 14/1 A reading-group craze is underway, according to publishers, booksellers, and librarians, but it's hardly a new phenomenon.

2003 E. Noble Reading Group 256 She had laughed when she told the reading group about it one evening when they'd finished talking about the book and moved on to the rest of the universe.

1756 T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. London I. 97 The conveniency of the lodgings, which opened behind the reading hall.

1898 Geogr. Jrnl. 12 276 From the public reading-hall we went into that for private reading.

1953 A. L. Wittick European Archit. in 20th Cent. 2 29 This reading-hall accommodates 700 readers.

2004 E. M. Perdue Lost Adventures ii. x. 146 The reading hall served as a place for lectures, meetings, reading of newspapers, [etc.].

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 315/1 Reading-hook, a book-marker, made of bone or ivory.

1859 Charleston (S. Carolina) Daily Courier 24 Dec. 1/1 Russell's Reading List.—Russell & Jones, 251 King-street, have presented the following Books, which await examination.

1889 Catholic World Sept. 840 They receive regularly for one year copies of reading lists, where courses suited to differing tastes are made out.

1925 Scribner's Mag. July 61/1 Books on fishing..should, in my opinion, have a place on every reading list.

2007 Courier Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 12 May m27 I was 12 when I read my first Daphne du Maurier book—for some reason it wasn't on the school reading list—Jamaica Inn.

1872 Christian Advocate 22 Aug. 272 Rates of Advertising... Ordinary Advertisements... Reading Notices.

1935 N.Y. Times 14 Dec. 14/5 All the newspapers of those times in reading notices and advertisements refer to that site as the Fields.

2005 E. Applegate Strategic Copywriting xiii. 210 The reading notice is important. Remember, it is an ad in the form of an article. It will have..a headline similar to those found in newspaper or magazine articles.

1781 T. Holcroft tr. Comtesse de Genlis Spoiled Child i. i, in Theatre Educ. (ed. 2) I. 185 Is there not to be a reading party here today?

1860 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. II. x. 174 Others applied to know whether he would take a reading party in the long vacation.

1980 D. Newsome On Edge of Paradise ii. 59 A meeting there with a reading-party was usually the prelude to some summer expedition abroad.

2007 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 13 May (Neighbourhood Times) 11 At Bear Creek Elementary in St. Petersburg, students in all grades were invited to a pajama reading party.

1636 P. Heylyn Coale from Altar ii. 25 What spare time can wee afford him, betweene the Reading Pew, and the Holy Table, to reconcile those men, betwixt whom hee perceiveth malice and hatred to raigne?

1662 S. Pepys Diary 26 Oct. (1970) III. 235 To church and there saw, the first time, Mr. Mills in a Surplice; but it seemed absurd for him to pull it over his eares in the reading-pew.

1710 J. Groome Dignity & Honour Clergy xi. 219 The Reading Pew and Pulpit were both of equal Height.

1848 Ecclesiologist Oct. 144 An open reading-pew and lettern.

1995 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 35 102 Diminution of the role of the sermon..is again evident in Herbert's decision to make the reading pew and the pulpit of an equal height at the Leighton church.

1730 H. Fielding Author's Farce i. vi. 10 Your Reading Play is of a different Stamp, and must have Wit and Meaning in it.

1877 Appletons' Jrnl. July–Dec. 94/1 For a ‘reading play’ it is too discontinuous, too technical, too obviously addressed to a miscellaneous audience that is to be tickled and amused.

1994 J. Deritter Embodiment of Char. iv. 107 Although Caelia failed miserably on stage, it apparently enjoyed a certain amount of success as a ‘reading play’.

1628 H. Burton Tryall Priuate Deuotions sig. A^v For those private godly prayers in the end of the reading Psalmes, he thinkes them fitter to be omitted, then added.

1650 R. Heath Satyrs i. 3 in Clarastella The smal piece spoke all the Reading Psalms, Without a magnifying glass.

1706 A. Bedford Temple Musick viii. 162 The like Order is observed in the Pointing of our Reading Psalms.

a1707 S. Patrick Auto-biogr. (1839) 150 The old translation of the reading Psalms.

1948 P. A. Scholes Great Dr. Burney I. vi. 59 There was, of course, in the churches a clear distinction between the 'reading psalms' (the prose psalms taken regularly, in course according to the Prayer Book and read in alternate verses as above described) and the 'singing psalms'.

1979 App. Jrnls. House of Representatives N.Z. E.–1. 10 Support for Professor Marie Clay of Auckland University to introduce a ‘reading recovery’ programme aimed at helping 6-year olds with incipient reading problems.

1990 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 14 Feb. b7/4 Reading Recovery continues for about 15 to 20 weeks until the child is considered ready for independent learning.

2005 J. Flood et al. Handbk. Res. on Teaching Literacy lvi. 638 Reading Recovery demonstrates what is possible when we put into action current knowledge about how young children learn literacy.

1759 T. Gray Let. 8 Aug. in Corr. (1971) II. 632 I often pass four hours in the day in the stillness & solitude of the reading room [at the British Museum].

1863 Oxf. Univ. Cal. 63 The building known till lately as ‘the Radcliffe Library’ is now used as a Reading Room in connection with the Bodleian Library under the name of ‘Camera Bodleiana’.

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 111 Reading room, the department which includes the reading staff.

1963 Mod. Lang. Jrnl. 47 165/1 It is wise to obtain a second pass card, since the withdrawal of..one book..requires the deposit of the card and thus leaves the user without access to the main reading room.

1995 Private Eye 8 Sept. 25/1 A little pink number by Yves St Laurent is no substitute for a ticket to the British Museum Reading Room and some brow-creasing application.

1662 in Middle Temple Rec. (1905) III. 1179 Messrs. Lake and Mundy..are..desired to ask the surveyors of the kitchen and buttery in the last two weeks of Trinity Term, and the casters up of commons in the last reading week, their reasons for refusing to sign the accounts for said weeks.

1926 Peabody Jrnl. Educ. 3 228 The reading week begins with Wednesday and ends with Tuesday. This is the period within which two reading credits must be made.

2006 Toronto Star (Nexis) 31 Mar. d12 For many students, reading week is a time for tequila shooters.

1580 in Wills & Inventories Eccl. Court Chester (1861) III. 36 Two payre of sheetes, th' one payre of canvas, th' other of redinge.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Redins, redding clothes.

1622 G. de Malynes Consuetudo i. 87 For a Redding Cloth sold beyond the Seas, hee might haue returned one Bale of Fustians.

1683 E. Chamberlayne Present State Eng. (new ed.) xi. 53 Kent, York, and Redding Cloaths are six quarters and a half broad.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 107/1 Readings is a course sort of Cloth.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 348/2 Reedings..[is] House~wives Cloth made of Hemp or Flax.

1784 J. Abercrombie Propagation & Bot. Arrangem. Plants & Trees I. 281 Large Reading Onion.

1824 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (ed. 2) 639 Spanish, Reading, white Portugal, Cambridge, Evesham, or sandy onion: large, flat, white tinged with green, mild, but does not keep very well;..much cultivated round Reading.

1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery (ed. 4) xxii. 508 The Reading onion is the proper kind for pickling.

1885 W. Miller tr. Veg. Garden (Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie) 366 White Spanish, or Reading, Onion... Bulb quite flat, 3 to 4 inches in diameter.

1956 Dict. Gardening (Royal Hort. Soc.) (ed. 2) III. 1426/1 Some varieties are fairly resistant [to white rot], e.g. Rousham Park Hero, Up to Date, Improved Reading, and White Spanish.

1963 Sutton's Seed Catal. 66/1 Sutton's Improved Reading. A maincrop onion.

1816 Edinb. Advertiser 9 Jan. 19/1 The Reading Sauce is generally used at table with all sorts of fish..and is esteemed peculiarly delicious with game.

1861 I. M. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. x. 240 Reading Sauce,..walnut pickle..shalots..Indian soy..bruised ginger [etc.]... Seasonable.—This sauce may be made at any time.

1878 M. Jewry Warne's Model Cookery 46/1 A large spoonful of sauce, either Worcester or Reading.

1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 33/2 Sauces (Other Makers')... Reading.

1996 Financial Times (Nexis) 13 Apr. (Food & Drink section) 4 There were rather more English products on display than one might have imagined: plum pudding, Huntley and Palmer's biscuits..and Reading sauce.

1817 Trans. Geol. Soc. 4 283 In many parts of this great valley or trough of chalk [sc. the Thames valley] we recognized our Reading beds in their proper place, as the inferior strata of the plastic clay formation.

1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. 844 The Woolwich and Reading Beds, or ‘Plastic Clay’ of the older geologists, consist of lenticular sheets of plastic clay, loam, sand, and pebble-beds.

1936 Times 29 June 22/2 The Reading beds and the Bagshot sands have a low value for arable purposes.

1969 G. M. Bennison & A. E. Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles xv. 336 The Reading Beds facies is the most extensive of the three in the London Basin.

1997 Palaios 12 610/1 Goldring examined small-scale facies changes using Ophiomorpha trace-makers..from the Reading Formation of the west London Basin.

1940 F. G. Huth in Jrnl. Gypsy Lore Soc. 19 117 The Reading Waggon, or old type of Gypsy vardō, with large wheels running outside the body of the van.

1951 Archit. Rev. 109 317 There are five distinct types of gypsy wagon... Reading wagon. Originally built by the Dunton family at Reading, this is probably the oldest type of van and is generally accepted as the ‘gypsy shape’.

1975 Country Life 2 Oct. 840/1 We thought we might buy an old gypsy wagon... I found the ruin of a ‘Reading’ or showman's wagon.

1997 Independent (Nexis) 2 Dec. (Features section) 5 This colourful high-Gothic style horse-drawn Reading Wagon of about 1900 is estimated at £8,000-£10,000.

1572 J. Whitgift Answere to Admon. 52 I see not howe you can condemne reading ministers, seeyng reading is necessarie in the Churche.

1641 T. Beedome Poems sig. C5^v As if that sinne which thou wouldst faine denie, Were printed there before my reading eye.

1676 N. Strong England's Perfect School-master 116 (heading) Concerning Points or Stops used in Sentences, which Reading Scholars ought to be acquainted with.

1683 J. Oldham Poems & Transl. 14 Leave mouldy Authors to the reading Fools.

1691 R. Baxter Against Revolt to Foreign Jurisdict. 282 Did this reading Man never hear of the Claim of Princes to call Councils in their Dominions?

1759 Hurd's Dial. Pref. 6 The learned assemblies of reading divines.

1774 T. R. Politician Reform'd in Appeal to Publick 14 I never read any book in my life, but the Bible..And I am glad on't, for I don't see that your reading women are one jot the better for it.

1848 H. W. Fox Chapters on Missions S. India vi. 163 They are a nation capable to some extent of reading, but not a reading nation. There is but little habit of reading among them.

1885 J. Martineau Types Ethical Theory II. ii. iii. §1. 517 Its..literary merits secured it immediate attention on the part of reading men.

2007 Times-Picayune (New Orleans) (Nexis) 19 June (Living section) 1 Any booklover will be charmed by these reading women, all making choices about their future, coming to terms with their pasts.

1808 C. Stower Printer's Gram. 392 The eye of the reader should not follow, but rather go before the voice of his reading-boy.

1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 710/1 The reading department, sometimes called the closet, having for its occupants the reader and his reading-boy.

1937 in C. Day Lewis Mind in Chains 206 Worked as reading-boy and apprentice compositor.

1996 Music & Lett. 77 361 In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, proof correction of literary texts was..usually performed orally. A reading boy read from the original copy, while the corrector followed and marked up the proofs.

1670 G. Sheldon Act Parl. against Relig. Meetings 7 The Reading Clerk of every Parish, or the Publick Cryers, may do all that our Arch. requires, as well as the ablest and most Learned Minister.

1769 Act 9 Geo. III c. 35 in Statutes at Large (1771) X. 615 From and after the passing of this Act, the said Clerk Assistant and the said Reading Clerk of the House of Peers..shall and may respectively send and receive Letters free from the Duty of Postage.

1788 Miss Rose in G. Rose Diaries (1860) I. 96 My brother William, then reading Clerk, came to us as soon as the House adjourned.

1817 Parl. Deb. 1st Ser. 16 The Lords were obliged to send this message by their Clerk-Assistant, and their Reading-Clerk.

1865 N.Y. Daily Tribune 1 Feb. 1/1 The roll is called over by the Reading Clerk, but the count has already been declared in whispers through the House—57 ayes, 111 noes.

1884 E. Yates Recoll. & Experiences I. ii. 66 Slingsby, who is reading-clerk in the House of Lords.

2002 New Yorker 18 Nov. 42/1 After the House passes a bill, it is the duty of the Reading Clerk to carry it across the Capital Building and formally present it to the Senate.

1684 J. Dryden Prol. Univ. Oxf. in Misc. Poems 264 In London..Haughty Dunces whose unlearned Pen Could ne'er Spell Grammar, would be reading Men.

1797 Monthly Mag. 3 266/1 During my residence at the university, and a constant intercourse with both reading and non-reading men [etc.].

1869 A. de Morgan Let. in S. E. De Morgan Mem. A. De Morgan (1882) xi. 388 I was not a ‘reading’ man (so called); I had no expectation of honours or a fellowship, and I attended all the lectures on all subjects..but the examination at the end of the first year [sc. at Cambridge] revealed to me my powers [sc. in maths]..and I took to ‘reading’ accordingly.

1938 Times 13 June 10/2 ‘Second Trinity’ was a club started by the ‘reading men’ at Trinity. I was up at Cambridge from 1874, and can quite well remember.

1997 P. Searby Hist. Univ. Cambridge III. xvi. 601 The early Victorian years..were the pinnacle of Cambridge competitiveness, at all events for the reading man who entered into its spirit.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. K4^v It were to be wished that all were preaching prelates, and not reading ministers only.

1615 T. Cooper Art of Giving xx. 57 Why will not a reading Minister serue the turne, who will serue for lesse?

1650 in J. Hodgson Hist. Northumberland: Pt. III (1835) III. iii. p. lv Those who formerly had the Rectory of Haltwistle did mainteyne a reading Minister.

1676 R. Williams George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes 76 Without this searching for the Sence and meaning, the Pith and Marrow of the holy Scriptures, or any other Scriptures or Writings we make use of, what are our Readings but the Papists Latine, the reading Ministers, the pratling of Children and Parrets?

1744 R. MacKenzie (title) Reading no preaching, or a letter to a young clergyman.

1853 W. Robins Paddington: Past & Present ii. 126 The pay of his ‘reading minister’ may astonish those who do not remember the account given..of the condition of the great majority of the clergy in the seventeenth century.

1884 G. G. Perry Hist. Eng. Church xxi. 340 The archdeacon and ordinaries were to allow a reading minister, if they judged him competent, to expound, standing in his stall, the points of the catechism.

1956 C. Hill Econ. Probl. Church i. iv. 51 In 1573 Cartwright complained that this gave security of tenure to any reading minister, however incompetent: and Whitgift in reply defended the minister's rights.

1812 W. Scott Let. to Byron 3 July in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Scott xxiv Besides this debt, which I owe your Lordship in common with the rest of the reading public, [etc.].

1831 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 94/2 The ‘reading public’, then, had little to do with the lower orders.

a1936 R. Kipling Something of Myself (1937) iii. 47 Our reading public..were..as well educated as fifty per cent of our ‘staff’.

1975 S. Schoenbaum W. Shakespeare xi. 120 A dramatist had least to say about..publication... He strove, after all, to please audiences in the theatre, not a reading public.

2004 D. Dalton Rough Guide Philippines 438 In the 1850s the French, British and American reading public were titillated by accounts of Igorot bloodlust written by European missionaries.