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
expoundteachadmonishscoldchidepreachreciteoratespoutdeliverspieldiscourseaddressdeclaimharanguetalkspeaksermonizeflayberateExamples from the Web for lectured
Contemporary Examples
It had been a year during which I had lectured at many colleges--mostly on education and civil liberties.
I have been blessed to work with her, to learn from her, to travel with her, and even when needed, to be lectured by her.
Lisa Camooso Miller, a Republican strategist, lectured about “the new media reality.”
He lectured the witness that the location of two ventilator fans was very important “because it will show you are lying.”
Pistorius’s Cross-Examination Could Have Been Grounds for a Mistrial in a U.S. CourtJames D. Zirin
May 5, 2014
As a grunt, he lectured a high-ranking officer in protest of Marines who attacked a Vietnamese child.
Historical Examples
Some years ago I lectured in Oxford on the subject of Education.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
“Be exact in what you say,” Ossipon lectured in the swift motion of the hansom.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
Most of them lectured as though getting tired, the others as though tired out.
The HarborErnest Poole
Go home and be lectured and advised and reproved by every woman in the village?
A Singer from the SeaAmelia Edith Huddleston Barr
Sam's mother had lectured him on the subject before he left home.
Mary-'GustaJoseph C. Lincoln
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 lectured
lecture
v.
1580s, from lecture (n.). Meaning "to address severely and at length" is from 1706. Related: Lectured; lecturing.
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.