[reed] 
| 1. | the straight stalk of any of various tall grasses, esp. of the genera Phragmites and Arundo, growing in marshy places. |
| 2. | any of the plants themselves. |
| 3. | such stalks or plants collectively. |
| 4. | anything made from such a stalk or from something similar, as an arrow. |
| 5. | Music.
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| 6. | Textiles. the series of parallel strips of wires in a loom that force the weft up to the web and separate the threads of the warp. |
| 7. | an ancient unit of length, equal to 6 cubits. Ezek. 40:5. |
| 8. | to decorate with reed. |
| 9. | to thatch with or as if with reed. |
| 10. | to make vertical grooves on (the edge of a coin, medal, etc.). |
| 11. | a broken reed, a person or thing too frail or weak to be relied on for support: Under stress he showed himself to be a broken reed. |
A thin piece of wood or plastic used in many woodwind instruments. It vibrates when the player holds it in the mouth and blows over it (as with a single reed) or through it (as with a double reed). Clarinets and saxophones use a single reed; bassoons and oboes use a double reed.
Reed (rēd), Walter. 1851-1902.
American surgeon who led the commission that proved experimentally that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes.
| Reed (rēd) Pronunciation Key
American physician and army surgeon who proved in 1900 that yellow fever was transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. His research led to the mosquito eradication programs carried out by William Gorgas that virtually eradicated yellow fever from Havana, Cuba, and from the Panama Canal Zone. |
broken reed
A weak or unreliable support, as in I'd counted on her to help, but she turned out to be a broken reed. The idea behind this idiom, first recorded about 1593, was already present in a mid-15th-century translation of a Latin tract, "Trust not nor lean not upon a windy reed."