Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - reading

(readings) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Reading is the activity of reading books. I have always loved reading. ...young people who find reading and writing difficult. N-UNCOUNT 2. A reading is an event at which poetry or extracts from books are read to an audience. ...a poetry reading. N-COUNT 3. Your reading of a word, text, or situation is the way in which you understand or interpret it. My reading of her character makes me feel that she was too responsible a person to do those things... N-COUNT: with supp, usu N of n 4. The reading on a measuring device is the figure or measurement that it shows. The gauge must be giving a faulty reading. N-COUNT 5. In the British Parliament or the US Congress, a reading is one of the three stages of introducing and discussing a new bill before it can be passed as law. The bill is expected to pass its second reading with a comfortable majority. N-COUNT: usu ord N 6. If you say that a book or an article makes interesting reading or makes for interesting reading, you mean that it is interesting to read. The list of drinks, a dozen pages long, makes fascinating reading... PHRASE: V inflects