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read between the lines

  1. To pay attention to what is implied in writing or in speech.


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Idioms and Phrases

Perceive or detect a hidden meaning, as in They say that everything's fine, but reading between the lines I suspect they have some marital problems . This term comes from cryptography, where in one code reading every second line of a message gives a different meaning from that of the entire text. [Mid-1800s]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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