reed

noun

• 1a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family that 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 reeds, growing in wet habitats, e.g., bur reed.
• the tall, thin, straight stalk of a reed, used especially as material for thatching.
• [often as modifier] reeds growing in a mass or used as material, especially for making thatch or household items:a reed curtain clumps of reed and grass
• literary a rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw.

• 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 weaver’s comblike implement for separating the threads of the warp and correctly positioning the weft.
• (reeds) semicylindrical adjacent moldings grouped like reeds laid together.

• 3a piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, that vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe, at the base of some organ pipes, and as part of a set in the accordion and harmonica.
• a wind instrument played with a reed.
• an organ stop with reed pipes.

• 4an electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay.