1. a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family, which grows in water or on marshy ground.
▪ used in names of plants similar to the reed and growing in wet habitats, e.g. bur reed.
▪ reeds growing in a mass or used as material, especially for making thatch or household items: "a reed curtain"
▪ the tall, thin, straight stalk of a reed, used especially as material for thatching.British
▪ a rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw: literary"as if thy waves had only heard the shepherd's reed"
▪ an arrow.literary
2. a weak or impressionable person: "the jurors were mere reeds in the wind"
3. a piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, that vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe, at the base of some organ pipes, and as part of a set in the accordion and harmonica: "a reed instrument"
▪ a wind instrument played with a reed.
▪ an organ stop with reed pipes.
4. an electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay: "the permanent magnet closes the reeds and contacts together"
5. a comblike implement (originally made from reed or cane) used by a weaver to separate the threads of the warp and correctly position the weft.
6. a set of semicylindrical adjacent moldings like reeds laid together.
Word OriginOld Englishhrēod, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch riet and German Ried.
