Also 5 letture, 6 lectcur, -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. Obs.
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. Cath. M. Graham, Lett. Educ., 82. The French poetry I would limit to Boileau [etc.] … and the Latin lectures to selected plays of Terence [etc.].
1829. [H. D. Best], Pers. & Lit. Mem., 401. No one, besides, ought to be contented with a single lecture of a work that requires such attentive study, and deep meditation.
† 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.
1683. 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 three or four times.
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 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. Shaks., 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. 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. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 87. These bookes, I would haue him read now, a good deale at euery lecture.
1596. Shaks., 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. Shaks., 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. Gewgaws 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. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 365. I haue heard him read many Lectors against it. Ibid. (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. 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-book, -hearing, -room, -table, -theatre; † 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-sermon, a sermon of the character of a lecture, or forming part of a set course.
1857. Pusey, Real Presence, i. (1869), 111. The altered confession [of Augsburg] … became the *Lecture-book in Lutheran states.
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.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 207. Placing all in faith, together with *lecture-hearing, hymn-singing, and other means of strengthening it.
1829. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 104. The *Lecture Rooms … to be provided with desks.
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. Ibid., 168. The Museum, and *Lecture-Theatre remain as at present.
