reader

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who reads.

   an early reader, a talented reader

2. 2
   noun

   A person who reads a publication.

   10,000 weekly readers

3. 3
   noun

   A person employed by a publisher to read works submitted for publication and determine their merits.

   They were dog-eared by the hands of many a publisher's-reader and postman.

4. 4
   noun

   A position attached to aristocracy, or to the wealthy, with the task of reading aloud, often in a foreign language.

   "I am commissioned by the Queen to offer you the place of Italian reader; and I assure you the offer was made with many kind expressions of interest. You will enter upon the duties, which are almost nominal, immediately."

5. 5
   noun

   Any device that reads something.

   a card reader, a microfilm reader

6. 6
   noun

   An elementary textbook for those learning to read, especially for foreign languages.

   Appletons’ School Readers

7. 7
   noun

   A literary anthology.

   A good bedtime reader should entertain and delight, and that's what I find in Girard Kent's The Boy Harleqin ^([sic]) and Other Stories.

8. 8
   noun

   Marked playing cards used by cheaters.

   LUMINOUS READERS—Marked cards that can be read only through tinted glasses.

Etymology

From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English rēdere, rǣdere (“a reader; scholar; diviner”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādāri, equivalent to read + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Räider (“advisor”), Dutch rader (“advisor”), German Rater (“advisor”).