[f. LECTURE sb.]
1. intr. To deliver a lecture or lectures. Also † to lecture it.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix. 16. Men that may lecture it in Germany, To all the Doctors of your Belgicke scholes.
1637–50. J. Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 320. Mr. Robert Bruce,… they now haveing no minister, almost everie day, either preaching in the morning, or lectureing at even.
1774. Goldsm., Retal., 86. But now he is gone, and we want a detector, Our Dodds shall be pious, our Kenricks shall lecture.
1861. Sat. Rev., 21 Dec., 631. No one, we should think, ever lectured at one of the common institutions without seeing the most absurd burlesque of his discourse in the next week’s local paper.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 6. 146. The Oxford Dominicans lectured on theology in the nave of their new Church.
2. trans. To deliver lectures to or before (an audience); to instruct by lecture. † Also, to stir up by lectures or sermons.
1681. R. L’Estrange, Relaps’d Apostate (ed. 3), 48. They set to work a Preaching Ministry, and Lectur’d up the people into a Gospel-frame.
1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 249. It is but a week ago that Simonet was still lectur’d in the civil law.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 83. So Philomedé, lect’ring all mankind On the soft Passion.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. i. III. ii. (1869), II. 348. The teacher … while he is lecturing his students.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 182. From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature’s progress when she lectures man In heavenly truth.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 146. He was in the habit of lecturing his monks every morning, from some passage in Scripture.
b. To read out (tales) to (an audience). nonce-use.
1814. Cary, Dante, Par., XV. 118. Another … lectured them Old tales of Troy.
3. To address with some severity, or at some length, on the subject of conduct, behavior, or the like; to admonish, rebuke, reprimand.
1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule (1707), 172. The most ordinary Folly incident to old Men, is to be perpetually Lecturing Youth.
1779. Mad. D’Arblay, Lett., Jan. I have been … plentifully lectured already upon my vexation.
1818. in J. Maclean, Hist. Coll. N. Jersey (1877), II. 175. This morning we suspended one student, and three others were lectured before the Faculty.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 367. Those whom he had lectured withdrew full of resentment. The imputation which he had thrown on them was unjust.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, xlv. 203. Having lectured Tom well on the importance of sobriety.
1882. Froude, Short Stud. (1883), IV. I. vi. 70. He [Becket] lectured the bishops for their want of understanding.
