LECTURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lecture mean? 

• LECTURE (noun)
  The noun LECTURE has 3 senses:

1. a speech that is open to the public

2. a lengthy rebuke

3. teaching by giving a discourse on some subject (typically to a class)

  Familiarity information: LECTURE used as a noun is uncommon.

• LECTURE (verb)
  The verb LECTURE has 2 senses:

1. deliver a lecture or talk

2. censure severely or angrily

  Familiarity information: LECTURE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LECTURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A speech that is open to the public

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

lecture; public lecture; talk

Context example:

he attended a lecture on telecommunications

Hypernyms ("lecture" is a kind of...):

address; speech (the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience)

Derivation:

lecture (deliver a lecture or talk)

lectureship (the post of lecturer)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A lengthy rebuke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

lecture; speech; talking to

Context example:

the teacher gave him a talking to

Hypernyms ("lecture" is a kind of...):

rebuke; reprehension; reprimand; reproof; reproval (an act or expression of criticism and censure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lecture"):

preaching; sermon (a moralistic rebuke)

curtain lecture (a private lecture to a husband by his wife)

Derivation:

lecture (censure severely or angrily)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Teaching by giving a discourse on some subject (typically to a class)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

lecture; lecturing

Hypernyms ("lecture" is a kind of...):

instruction; pedagogy; teaching (the profession of a teacher)

Meronyms (parts of "lecture"):

lecture demonstration (presentation of an example of what the lecturer is discoursing about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lecture"):

talk (the act of giving a talk to an audience)

Holonyms ("lecture" is a part of...):

class; course; course of instruction; course of study (education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings)

Derivation:

lecture (deliver a lecture or talk)

lectureship (the post of lecturer)

• LECTURE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they lecture    ... he / she / it lectures   
Past simple: lectured   
Past participle: lectured   
-ing form: lecturing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deliver a lecture or talk

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

lecture; talk

Context example:

Did you ever lecture at Harvard?

Hypernyms (to "lecture" is one way to...):

instruct; learn; teach (impart skills or knowledge to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lecture"):

preach; prophesy (deliver a sermon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something ----s to somebody
Somebody ----s on something

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue lecture

Derivation:

lecture (teaching by giving a discourse on some subject (typically to a class))

lecture (a speech that is open to the public)

lecturer (a public lecturer at certain universities)

lecturer (someone who lectures professionally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Censure severely or angrily

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bawl out; berate; call down; call on the carpet; chew out; chew up; chide; dress down; have words; jaw; lambast; lambaste; lecture; rag; rebuke; remonstrate; reprimand; scold; take to task; trounce

Context example:

The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup

Hypernyms (to "lecture" is one way to...):

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lecture"):

castigate; chasten; chastise; correct; objurgate (censure severely)

brush down; tell off (reprimand)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

lecture (a lengthy rebuke)

 Context examples 

"It is my friend Professor Challenger," and amid laughter he renewed his lecture as if this was a final explanation and no more need be said.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amy shook her head and opened her sketchbook with an air of resignation, but she had made up her mind to lecture 'that boy' and in a minute she began again.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He held it up and tapped on it with his long, thin fore-finger, as a professor might who was lecturing on a bone.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then he remembered that he loved her and was lost in amazement at his fortune that permitted him to love her and to take her on his arm to a lecture.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You might go on a lecture tour, research facts for your thesis, or if you write code, create new software or a website.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I leave him entirely to your mercy, and when he has got you at Everingham, I do not care how much you lecture him.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It was very natural for you to say, what right has he to lecture me? —and I am afraid very natural for you to feel that it was done in a disagreeable manner.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

By the by, I mean to lecture you a little upon their account myself.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"That's for you, nurse," said he; "you can go down; I'll give Miss Jane a lecture till you come back."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In one of these excursive glances she perceived among a group of young men, the very he, who had given them a lecture on toothpick-cases at Gray's.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)