reed

noun

• 1a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family, which grows in water or on marshy ground.

  • Genera Phragmites and Arundo, family Gramineae: several species, in particular the common (or Norfolk) reed (P. australis), which is used for thatching
• used in names of plants similar to the reed and growing in wet habitats, e.g. bur-reed.
• a tall straight stalk of a reed plant, used especially as a material in making thatch or household items: a harvest of thatching reeds [mass noun:, as modifier]:a reed curtain
• [mass noun] British straw used for thatching.
• literary a rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw: as if thy waves had only heard the shepherd’s reed

• 2a thing or person resembling or likened to a reed, in particular:
• a weak or impressionable person:the jurors were mere reeds in the wind
• literary an arrow: a bright reed of energy pierced the starship bridge
• (reeds) a set of semi-cylindrical adjacent mouldings like reeds laid together.

• 3a piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, which vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe or at the base of some organ pipes: [as modifier]:a reed instrument
• a wind instrument played with a reed.
• an organ stop with reed pipes.

• 4an electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay: the permanent magnet closes the reeds and contacts together [as modifier]:a reed relay

• 5a weaver’s comb-like implement (originally made from reed or cane) for separating the threads of the warp and correctly positioning the weft.