read (one) a lecture

To scold, reprimand, or reprove someone severely for an error or mistake. I was read a lecture by my boss last week for messing up the accounting software. I know Mary messed up, but there was no need to read her a lecture for it.

read (one) a lesson

To scold, reprimand, or reprove someone severely for an error or mistake. I was read a lesson by my boss last week for messing up the accounting software. I know Mary messed up, but there was no need to read her a lesson for it.

read a

lecture/lesson

To issue a reprimand: My parents read me a lecture because I had neglected my chores.

See also: read

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in classic literature

You can do as you please, but I shall keep my book on the table here and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good and help me through the day."

View in context

B read A's work with a strange mixture of dread and expectation.

The Auster instance: a ficto-biography

If one's true degree of conviction about something is most accurately reflected in high-stakes decisions about it --for example, (supposedly) no atheists in foxholes--then the reticence of Christian parents to follow A may be read as a candid indication of their lack of conviction about the truth of Christianity's faith-based soteriological claims.

The Idiot's Guide to Salvation

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