¦ noun
1. a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family, growing in water or on marshy ground. [Genera Phragmites and Arundo: several species.]
used in names of similar plants growing in wet habitats, e.g. bur-reed.
2. a tall, thin, straight stalk of a reed, used especially for thatching.
Brit. straw for thatching.
literary a rustic musical pipe made from reeds or straw.
3. a piece of thin cane or metal which vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or at the base of some organ pipes.
a wind instrument played with a reed.
4. (also broken reed) a weak or impressionable person.
5. literary an arrow.
6. a weaver's comb-like implement for separating the warp and positioning the weft.
7. (reeds) a set of semi-cylindrical adjacent mouldings like reeds laid together.
8. an electrical contact in a magnetically operated switch or relay.
Derivatives
reeded adjective
Origin
OE hreod, of W. Gmc origin.