Rede
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Help, advice, counsel. archaic, dialectal, uncountable
"Ophelia: Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede."
- 2 Decision, a plan. archaic, dialectal, uncountable
- 1 To govern, protect. UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive
- 2 give advice to wordnet
- 3 To discuss, deliberate. UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive
- 4 give an interpretation or explanation to wordnet
- 5 To advise. UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive
"The meane whyle his squyer founde wryten vpon the crosse that Bagdemagus shold neuer retorne vnto the Courte ageyne / tyll he had wonne a knyȝtes body of the round table body for body / lo syr said his squyer / here I fynde wrytyng of yow / therfor I rede yow retorne ageyne to the Courte / that shalle I neuer said Bagdemagus"
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- 6 To interpret (a riddle or dream); explain. UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive
"The secret of Man's Being is still like the Sphinx's secret: a riddle that he cannot rede."
- 1 A river in Northumberland, England, which joins the River North Tyne at Redesmouth.
Example
More examples"Ophelia: Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede."
Etymology
From Middle English red, rede, from Old English rǣd, from Proto-West Germanic *rād, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaz. Cognate with Danish råd, Dutch raad, German Rat, Swedish råd, Norwegian Bokmål råd. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish rádaid (“to speak, say, tell”). Doublet of rada.
From Middle English reden, ræden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise; plot, design; rule, govern, guide; determine, decide, decree; read, explain”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną. Cognate with German raten, Low German raden, Dutch raden. More at read.
Probably from Old English hrēod (“reed”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.