n. One who counsels; a counselor; an adviser.n. One who interprets; one who acquires knowledge from observation or impression; an interpreter: as, a reader of weather-signs or of probabilities. See mind-reader.n. One who reads; a person who peruses, studies, or utters aloud that which is written or printed.n. Specifically— One who reads for examination or criticism; an examiner of that which is offered or proposed for publication: as, an editorial or a publisher's reader.n. One who is employed to read for correction for the press; a proof-reader.n. One who recites before an audience anything written: as, an elocutionary reader. Particularlyn. One whose office it is to read before an audience; an officer appointed to read for a particular purpose; a lector; a lecturer.n. In the early church, the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and some other churches, a member of one of the minor clerical orders, appointed to read Scripture lections in the church. The order of reader existed as early as the second century. At an early date it was not unusual to admit young boys, even of five or six, to the office of reader, but by the sixth century the age of eighteen was required by law. In the Roman Catholic Church this order is little more than one of the steps to the priesthood. The reader (lector) ranks above a doorkeeper and below an exorcist, and the form of ordination is the delivery to him of the book from which he is to read. In the Greek church the reader (anagnost) ranks below a subdeacon, and it is his office, as it was in the early church, to read the Epistle, the deacon reading the Gospel. In the Church of England the order fell into abeyance after the Reformation, but lay readers were frequently licensed, especially in churches or chapels without a clergyman. They could not minister the sacraments and other rites of the church, except the burial of the dead and the churching of women, nor pronounce the absolution and benediction. Of late years, however, bishops have regularly admitted candidates to the office of reader by delivery of a copy of the New Testament. In the American Episcopal Church lay readers conduct services in vaeant churches or under a rector by his request with license from the bishop for a definite period (a year or less). They cannot give absolution or benediction, administer sacraments, nor use the occasional offices of the church except those for the burial of the dead and visitation of the sick and prisoners, nor deliver sermons of their own composition.n. One who reads the law in a Jewish synagogue.n. In the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the English Inns of Court, etc., a lecturer, or, where there are two grades of lecturers, a lecturer of the higher grade, the others being called sublectors or lecturers.n. A reading-book for schools; a book containing exercises in reading.
