lecture
- a speech read or delivered before an audience or class, especially for instruction or to set forth some subject: a lecture on Picasso's paintings.
- a speech of warning or reproof as to conduct; a long, tedious reprimand.
- to give a lecture or series of lectures: He spent the year lecturing to various student groups.
- to deliver a lecture to or before; instruct by lectures.
- to rebuke or reprimand at some length: He lectured the child regularly but with little effect.
Origin of lecture
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words
discourse, instruction, address, sermon, expound, teach, admonish, scold, chide, preach, spiel, allocution, disquisition, pitch, harangue, talk, oration, soapbox, rebuke, scoldingExamples from the Web for lecture
Contemporary Examples
Nobody has to lecture me about how Sharpton has played racial politics in New York.
I, and many fellow men, know this because women say so—they write it, they lecture on it, they write books about it.
She hated sharing Georgie with his admirers, particularly on lecture tours in in North America.
He carried a chair onto the stage, sat down and repeated the lecture he uses whenever he hires an old-time musician.
The lecture's purpose is to inspire the rock generation with love and respect for the blues.
Historical Examples
There was another listener at the lecture who was unexpectedly present.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
Was it probable that she had anything suitable to wear to a lecture?
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
"Why, I've delivered quite a lecture upon beauty," Miss Coleman said.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
I could have heard the lecture, but I couldn't spare my hands.
Samantha Among the Brethren, Part 2.Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
The instrument formed the subject of the Bakerian lecture for the year 1871.
Heroes of the TelegraphJ. Munro
lecture
- a discourse on a particular subject given or read to an audience
- the text of such a discourse
- a method of teaching by formal discourse
- a lengthy reprimand or scolding
- to give or read a lecture (to an audience or class)
- (tr) to reprimand at length
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for lecture
n.
late 14c., "action of reading, that which is read," from Medieval Latin lectura "a reading, lecture," from Latin lectus, past participle of legere "to read," originally "to gather, collect, pick out, choose" (cf. election), from PIE *leg- "to pick together, gather, collect" (cf. Greek legein "to say, tell, speak, declare," originally, in Homer, "to pick out, select, collect, enumerate;" lexis "speech, diction;" logos "word, speech, thought, account;" Latin lignum "wood, firewood," literally "that which is gathered").
To read is to "pick out words." Meaning "action of reading (a lesson) aloud" is from 1520s. That of "a discourse on a given subject before an audience for purposes of instruction" is from 1530s.
v.
1580s, from lecture (n.). Meaning "to address severely and at length" is from 1706. Related: Lectured; lecturing.