adj red.
2. reed ·noun an arrow, as made of a reed.
3. reed ·noun straw prepared for thatching a roof.
4. reed ·noun the fourth stomach of a ruminant; rennet.
5. reed ·noun ·same·as reeding.
6. reed ·v & ·noun ·same·as rede.
7. reed ·noun a tube containing the train of powder for igniting the charge in blasting.
8. reed ·noun a musical instrument made of the hollow joint of some plant; a rustic or pastoral pipe.
9. reed ·noun 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.
10. reed ·noun 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.
11. reed ·noun 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.
12. reed ·noun 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).