▪ I. lecture, n.
(ˈlɛktʃə(r))
Also 5 letture, 6 lectour, -tur, 6–7 lector.
[ad. L. lectūra, f. lect-, legĕre to read: see -ure. Cf. F. lecture.]
1. The action of reading, perusal; also fig. Also, that which is read or perused. arch.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. x. (1495) 311 He dysposyth a man and makith him able to letture and to wrytynge. c 1450 Lydg. Secrees 379 With alle these vertues plentevous in lecture. 1490 Caxton Eneydos vi. 24 By thynspection and lecture of theyr wrytyngys. a 1586 Sidney Astr. & Stella lxxvii, That face, whose lecture shewes what perfect beautie is. 1612 Shelton Quix. i. i. 4 He plunged himselfe so deepely in his reading of these bookes, as he spent many times in the Lecture of them whole dayes and nights. 1642 Boyle in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1888) V. 115, I have receaued a great deal of contentment..by the lecture of those particularitys of my Brother's..victoryes. 1642 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. 54 Were I a Pagan, I should not refrain the Lecture of it [the Bible]. 1741 Middleton Cicero II. ix. 290 He addressed it [the De Senectute] to Atticus, as a lecture of common comfort to them both, in that gloomy scene of life on which they were entring. 1790 C. M. Graham Lett. Educ. 130 The French poetry I would limit to Boileau [etc.]..and the Latin lectures to selected plays of Terence [etc.]. 1829 [I. R. Best] Pers. & Lit. Mem. 401 No one..ought to be contented with a single lecture of a work that requires such attentive study. 1904 Conrad Nostromo i. vi. 47 In about a year he had evolved from the lecture of the letters a definite conviction. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 708 What fractions of phrases did the lecture of those five whole words evoke? 1929 R. Bridges Testament of Beauty i. 24 If we read but of Europe since the birth of Christ, 'tis still incompetent disorder, all a lecture of irredeemable shame. |
† 2. The way in which a text reads; the ‘letter’ of a text; the form in which a text is found in a particular copy, a lection.
Obs.| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 32 Be þei ware þat þei knitt not falsly a wey þe witt fro þe lecture. 1538 Coverdale Prol. N.T. To Rdr., Where as the Greke and the olde awncient authours reade the prayer of oure lorde in the xi. Chapter of Luke after one maner..I folowe their lecture. 1680 Weekly Mem. Ingen. 2 He thinks their multiplicity and various lecture prove prejudicial to many Students. |
3. The action of reading aloud. Also, that which is so read, a lection or lesson.
arch.| 1526 Tindale Acts xiii. 15 After the lectur of the lawe and the prophetes. 1534 Sir T. More Treat. Pass. Wks. 1301/1 And vp on thys arose thys newe counsayle..whereof oure present lecture speaketh. 1539 Bible (Great) 2 Cor. iii. 14 In the lecture of the olde testament. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxv. §4 With solemne recitall of..lectures, Psalmes and praiers. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. Pref. ¶18 He that conquered the Land could not so conquer the language, but that in memory of our fathers, it hath been preserved with common lectures. 1664 Bulteel Birinthea 74 He repeated the Lecture of this Message. 1764 Mem. G. Psalmanazar 272, I could easily enough understand both their lectures of the Old Testament and their prayers. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxvii. 396 She began to read. The language had become strange to her tongue: it faltered: the lecture flowed unevenly. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers IV. xii. 126 Then came a lecture out of some pious writer. a 1873 Lytton Pausanias ii. iv. (1878) 427 She seemed listening to the lecture of the slave. |
4. a. A discourse given before an audience upon a given subject, usually for the purpose of instruction. (The regular name for discourses or instruction given to a class by a professor or teacher at a college or University.
Cf. sense 5.)
| 1536 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 42 §4 To reade one opyn and publique lectour in every of the said Universities in any such Science or tonge as [etc.]. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 341 In that College it was his happie lucke, to reade in the open schooles in Latine that thereby he..procured to his hearers exceeding great profite by his learned lectures. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 243 Say, we read Lectures to you, How youngly he began to serue his Countrey, How [etc.]. 1628 Coke On Litt. 280 b, But now Readings..haue lost..their former authorities: for now the cases are long, obscure, and intricate..liker rather to Riddles than Lectures. 1662 Gerbier Princ. 5 Lectures on the Art of Architecture, which have laid before them the most necessary Rules. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind i. ii. Wks. 1813 VIII. 19 Public or private lectures are such verbal instructions as are given by a teacher while the learners attend in silence. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing viii. 420 In this, as I have shown you in a former lecture, the statues of antiquity will afford you little assistance. 1827 Oxf. Univ. Guide 56 The Common Law School, where the Vinerian Professor reads his Lectures. 1847 Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 436, I can spare the college bell, And the learned lecture well. |
b. Applied to discourses of the nature of sermons, either less formal in style than the ordinary sermon, or delivered on occasions other than those of the regular order of church services; formerly, a sermon preached by a ‘lecturer’ (see
lecturer 2).
In Scottish use, the term formerly denoted a discourse in the form of a continuous commentary on a chapter or other extended passage of Scripture.
| 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 63 The xxv. day [of September, 1549] Cardmaker rede in Powlles, & sayd in hys lector that he cowde not rede there the xxvij. day. 1642 T. Lechford Plain Dealing (1867) 51 Upon the week dayes, there are Lectures in divers townes, and in Boston, upon Thursdays. 1675 Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. xii. 265 Our late Lectures against Popery. 1696 S. Sewall Diary 17 Sept. (1878) I. 433 Mr. Moodey preaches the Lecture from Acts 13. 36. 1724 R. Wodrow Life J. Wodrow (1828) 191 Those useful and necessary exercises we in this church call Lectures. 1729 in G. Sheldon Hist. Deerfield, Mass. (1895) I. 459 His Custom was to Preach a Lecture once a month, and a Sermon the Friday before the Sacrament. 1773 M. Cutler in Life, &c. (1888) I. 41 Mr. Leslie preached the lecture, afternoon. 1895 A. R. MacEwen Life J. Cairns xiii. 323 The lecture gave place to a sermon of a more or less hortatory type. |
c. A course or series of lectures, given regularly according to the terms of their foundation; a foundation for a lecturer; a lectureship.
| 1615 Sir G. Buck in Stow Annals 980 In this [Gresham] colledge are by this worthy Founder ordained seauen seuerall lectures of seauen seuerall Arts and faculties, to be read publikely. ? c 1650 in Wood Ath. Oxon. (1899) III. 149 Mr. Richard Gardner of this parish, a phisitian, gave for a catechisme lecture 200 li. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. ii. v. (1852) 382 They gathered among themselves a convenient salary to support him still amongst them: though his lecture were gone. At Earl's Coln then he tarried, and prepared for the lecture to be settled the next three years in Towcester. 1730 Hoadley Life S. Clarke 11 C.'s Serm. I, In the year 1704, He [Clarke] was call'd forth..to preach Mr. Boyle's Lecture, founded by that Honourable Gentleman, to assert and vindicate the Great Fundamentals of Natural and Revealed Religion. 1780 J. Bandinel (title), Eight Sermons preached..in the year 1780, at the Lecture founded by the late rev. and pious John Bampton M.A. |
d. The audience or class attending a lecture.
| 1848 J. H. Newman Loss & Gain 7 He coloured, closed his book, and instanter sent the whole lecture out of the room. |
5. a. The instruction given by a teacher to a pupil or class at a particular time; a lesson.
Obs. exc. in University use: see 4.
| 1545 Brinklow Compl. xxii. (1874) 52 Let scholes be mainteyned and lectures to be had in them of the .iij. tongys,—Hebrew, Greke & Latyne. 1552 Huloet, Lectur, or readynge in scholes, called the kinges lectur, or common lectur. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 87 These bookes, I would haue him read now, a good deale at euery lecture. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. i. 24 You'll leaue his Lecture when I am in tune? 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. i. 793 Wilt please you, Sir, to sit downe and repeate youre lecture? 1644 Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 100/1 But here the main skill and groundwork will be, to temper them such lectures and explanations upon every opportunity. 1765 Foote Commissary i. Wks. 1799 II. 14 The man..attends every morning to give him a lecture upon speaking. |
† b. fig. A ‘lesson’, an instructive counsel or example.
Obs.| 1575 Gascoigne Glasse Gov. i. v. Poems 1870 II. 23, I sawe a frosty bearded scholemaster instructing of four lusty young men erewhyle as we came in, but if my iudgement do not fayle me, I may chaunce to read some of them another lecture. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 618 And wilt thou be the schoole where Lust shall learne? Must he in thee read lectures of such shame? 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. xi. 89 He was againe to learne his Lecture by experience. 1633 Bp. Hall Medit. Proem, Every thing, that we see, reads us new lectures of wisdom and piety. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iii. iv. (1715) 21 Achilles's Shield..is a Lecture of Philosophy. 1745 Matrimony, Pro & Con 4 Gew⁓gaws of Dress are Lectures of the Mind. 1755 Young Centaur ii. Wks. 1757 IV. 142 Heaven means to make one half of the species a moral lecture to the other. |
6. An admonitory speech;
esp. one delivered by way of reproof or correction; ‘a magisterial reprimand’ (J.). Phr.
to read (a person) a lecture.
| 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 365, I haue heard him read many Lectors against it. 1602 ― Ham. ii. i. 67 So by my former Lecture and aduice. 1622 Fletcher Sea Voy. iv. ii, Ye have read me a faire Lecture, And put a spell upon my tongue for fay[n]ing. 1633–1851 [see curtain-lecture]. 1706 Reflex. upon Ridicule (1707) 298 Which moral Lecture is out of its Place. 1713 Addison Cato ii. i. 29 Numidia will be blest by Cato's Lectures. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. viii. 229 Our young bridegroom receiv'd a terrible lecture. 1867 Parkman Jesuits N. Amer. xix. (1875) 283 The missionary answered with a lecture on the duty of forgiveness. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
lecture agency,
lecture agent,
lecture audience,
lecture-book,
lecture circuit,
lecture course,
lecture-goer,
lecture-hall,
lecture-hearing,
lecture list,
lecture note,
lecture-room,
lecture-table,
lecture-theatre,
lecture-tour (also as
vb.);
lecture-day, ‘the appointed day for the periodical lecture of the municipality or parish; in the New England colonies it seems to have been usually Thursday’ (
Cent. Dict.);
lecture-recital, a lecture illustrated by music;
† lecture-sermon, a sermon of the character of a lecture, or forming part of a set course.
| 1925 A. Huxley Let. 25 Jan. (1969) 240 You suggest lectures for lucre in the U.S.A.:—I have had several offers from various *lecture agencies... The fatigue and the boredom of a lecture tour frighten me. 1949 Dylan Thomas Let. 1 Dec. (1966) 340 He said that the Lecture Agencies..have nowhere near his own acquaintanceship with the institutions. 1966 N. Nicolson in H. Nicolson Diaries & Lett. (1966) 131 Colston Leigh Inc. was the lecture-agency. |
| 1873 ‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age lviii. 527, I am a business man. I am a *lecture-agent. 1949 Dylan Thomas Let. 1 Dec. (1966) 341 Surely a letter from Brinnin, acting as my secretary & Lecture-Agent,..would mean something to the Treasury. |
| 1943 Wyndham Lewis Let. 5 Dec. (1963) 372 Seeing the gas-shortage whittles down all *lecture-audiences, I had quite a lot of people. 1974 M. Fido R. Kipling 64/2 ‘Here's poetry at last!’ he [sc. Professor Masson] burst out to his lecture audience on the day ‘Danny Deever’ appeared. |
| 1857 Pusey Real Presence i. (1869) 111 The altered confession [of Augsburg]..became the *Lecture-book in Lutheran states. |
| 1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1057/3 Well-financed readings on large *lecture-circuits..are staple. 1967 O. Wynd Walk Softly, Men Praying v. 62 He sounded like the agent for a lecture circuit telling me that I was standing on the threshold of great things. |
| 1890 H. Frederic Lawton Girl 150 It may take the form of..a *lecture course. 1956 Nature 10 Mar. 455/2 The American graduate student is usually forced to complete a relatively large number of lecture-courses. |
| 1616 Hieron Wks. I. 589 Let not the *lecture-day, now when the sermon is ended, be made a day of voluptuousnesse. 1677 in I. Mather Prevalency Prayer (1864) 264 note, It was agreed that Lecture-day, July 25th, 1677, should be kept as a Fast. 1753 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1884) XXI. 153 The meeting adjourned to the next Lecture Day. 1779 E. Parkman Diary 94 Mr. Badcock has been with me to speak about ye Singing..on proposed Lecture day. |
| 1897 *Lecture-goer [see class-attender (class n. 10)]. 1961 M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) xii. 163 Oxford undergraduates aren't the inveterate lecture-goers and note-takers that American college students are. |
| 1865 Atlantic Monthly XV. 369 The platform of the *lecture-hall has been common ground for..all our social..organizations. 1870 ‘Fanny Fern’ Ginger-Snaps 179, I get a comfortable seat in church,..or lecture-hall. 1961 New Eng. Bible Acts xix. 9 He..continued to hold discussions daily in the lecture-hall of Tyrannus. 1967 J. Hawgood in Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer iii. 70 The number of minutes that..it takes him to walk there from college or lecture⁓hall. |
| 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 207 Placing all in faith, together with *lecture-hearing, hymn-singing,..and other means of strengthening it. |
| 1965 Listener 4 Nov. 700/2 It was the first time that either of these names had appeared on the Oxford *lecture list. |
| 1892 W. Wallace tr. Hegel's Logic (ed. 2) 426 Cf. Werke, vii. i. 314 (*lecture-note). 1920 G. Saintsbury Notes on Cellar-Bk. i. 2 An ordinary ‘exercise book’..devoted to base purposes of lecture-notes. 1944 Mind LIII. 269 Sometimes one gets the impression of a collection of lecture-notes. 1973 E. Taylor Serpent under It (1974) iv. 60 Could you continue to teach in a place where..your students knew you had cribbed your lecture notes? |
| 1961 Observer 26 Nov. 28/1 (Advt.), *Lecture-Recitals..at Royal Academy of Music. |
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. x. 219 Numerous and respectable audiences,..honored my *lecture-rooms with their attendance. 1829 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 104 The Lecture Rooms..to be provided with desks. 1936 Discovery Oct. 301/2 The various buildings which housed the sectional lecture-rooms. |
| 1703 S. Sewall Diary 5 Aug. (1879) II. 83 Mr. Thomas Bridge preaches his first *Lecture-Sermon. 1736 J. Eliot (title) The Two Witnesses... Being the Substance of a Lecture-Sermon, preach'd at the North-Society in Lyme, October 29, 1735. a 1751 J. Bampton Will, I direct..that..a Lecturer be yearly chosen..to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons. |
| 1854 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 166 A small room for the use of the Lecturer, with a separate entrance to the Lecture-Table. |
| 1849 W. Allingham Diary 30 June (1907) iii. 48 We..passed into the *lecture-theatre. 1854 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 168 The Museum, and *Lecture-Theatre remain as at present. 1969 Listener 1 May 594/2 The ordinary university lecturer is no more exciting on film than he is in the lecture theatre. 1973 Nature 28 Sept. 225/1 Above the blackboards in the main physics lecture theatre of a Scottish university where I once worked there used to be written in large letters: ‘Truth will in the end always flow in the direction of the greatest speculative reflection.’ |
| 1913 R. Brooke Let. 24 July (1968) 486 The most unpopular person in Canada is Winston. Ever since his *lecture-tour. 1921 R. Fry Let. 19 Dec. (1972) II. 519, I have just got back to London after my lecture tour in the north of England. 1952 ‘J. Tey’ Singing Sands ix. 138, I hope Mr. Brown doesn't go lecture⁓touring in the States. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 2 May 237/2 An actress whom he meets while on a lecture-tour in South America. 1973 R. Lewis Of Singular Purpose i. 5 This lecture tour in America..is the first of many recognitions, I'm sure of it. |
▪ II. lecture, v. (
ˈlɛktʃə(r))
[f. lecture n.] 1. intr. To deliver a lecture or lectures. Also
† to lecture it.
| c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon ix. 16 Men that may lecture it in Germany, To all the Doctors of your Belgicke scholes. 1637–50 J. Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 320 Mr. Robert Bruce,..they now haveing no minister, almost everie day, either preaching in the morning, or lectureing at even. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 86 But now he is gone, and we want a detector, Our Dodds shall be pious, our Kenricks shall lecture. 1861 Sat. Rev. 21 Dec. 631 No one, we should think, ever lectured at one of the common institutions with⁓out seeing the most absurd burlesque of his discourse in the next week's local paper. 1874 Green Short Hist. iii. §6. 146 The Oxford Dominicans lectured on theology in the nave of their new Church. |
2. trans. To deliver lectures to or before (an audience); to instruct by lecture.
† Also, to stir
up by lectures or sermons.
| 1681 R. L'Estrange Relaps'd Apostate (ed. 3) 48 They set to work a Preaching Ministry, and Lectur'd up the people into a Gospel-frame. 1706 Reflex. upon Ridicule 249 It is but a week ago that Simonet was still lectur'd in the civil law. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 83 So Philomedé, lect'ring all mankind On the soft Passion. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. v. i. iii. ii. (1869) II. 348 The teacher..while he is lecturing his students. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 182 From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature's progress when she lectures man In heavenly truth. 1850 A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 146 He was in the habit of lecturing his monks every morning, from some passage in Scripture. |
b. To read out (tales) to (an audience).
nonce-use.
| 1814 Cary Dante, Par. xv. 118 Another..lectured them Old tales of Troy. |
3. To address with some severity, or at some length, on the subject of conduct, behaviour, or the like; to admonish, rebuke, reprimand.
| 1706 Reflex. upon Ridicule (1707) 172 The most ordinary Folly incident to old Men, is to be perpetually Lecturing Youth. 1779 F. Burney Lett. Jan., I have been..plentifully lectured already upon my vexation. 1818 in J. Maclean Hist. Coll. N. Jersey (1877) II. 175 This morning we suspended one student, and three others were lectured before the Faculty. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 367 Those whom he had lectured withdrew full of resentment. The imputation which he had thrown on them was unjust. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xlv. 203 Having lectured Tom well on the importance of sobriety. 1882 Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. i. vi. 70 He [Becket] lectured the bishops for their want of understanding. |