lire

See also: lirë and liře

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old English līra (“any fleshy part of the body, muscle, calf of the leg”), from Proto-Germanic *ligwizô, *lihwizô (“thigh, groin”), from Proto-Indo-European *lekʷs-, *lewks- (“groin”). Cognate with Dutch lies (“groin”), Swedish lår (“thigh”).

Noun

lire (plural lires)

1. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Flesh, brawn, or muscle; the fleshy part of a person or animal in contradistinction to the bone and skin.
2. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) The fleshy part of a roast capon, etc. as distinguished from a limb or joint.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old Norse hlýr (“cheeks”, plural). Compare Middle English lere, from Old English hlēor (“cheek, countenance, complexion”). More at leer.

Noun

lire (plural lires)

1. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) The cheek.
2. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) Face; appearance of the face or skin; complexion; hue.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse líri. Cognate with Norwegian lira.

Noun

lire (plural lires)

1. (Britain dialectal, Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, ornithology) The Manx shearwater (bird).

Etymology 4

From Italian lire.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪərə

Noun

lire

1. plural of lira

Homophones

• lyre

Anagrams

• Iler, Lier, Reil, Riel, riel, rile

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liʁ/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophones: lires, lyre, lyrent, lyres
• Rhymes: -iʁ

Etymology 1

From Old French lire, from Latin legere, present active infinitive of legō, from Proto-Italic *legō, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-.

Verb

lire

1. (transitive, intransitive) to read
2. (reflexive, se lire) to be read

Conjugation

  Conjugation of lire (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		lire			avoir lu
gerund		en lisant			en ayant lu
present participle		lisant /li.zɑ̃/
past participle		lu /ly/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	lis /li/	lis /li/	lit /li/	lisons /li.zɔ̃/	lisez /li.ze/	lisent /liz/
	imperfect	lisais /li.zɛ/	lisais /li.zɛ/	lisait /li.zɛ/	lisions /li.zjɔ̃/	lisiez /li.zje/	lisaient /li.zɛ/
	past historic1	lus /ly/	lus /ly/	lut /ly/	lûmes /lym/	lûtes /lyt/	lurent /lyʁ/
	future	lirai /li.ʁe/	liras /li.ʁa/	lira /li.ʁa/	lirons /li.ʁɔ̃/	lirez /li.ʁe/	liront /li.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	lirais /li.ʁɛ/	lirais /li.ʁɛ/	lirait /li.ʁɛ/	lirions /li.ʁjɔ̃/	liriez /li.ʁje/	liraient /li.ʁɛ/
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	lise /liz/	lises /liz/	lise /liz/	lisions /li.zjɔ̃/	lisiez /li.zje/	lisent /liz/
	imperfect1	lusse /lys/	lusses /lys/	lût /ly/	lussions /ly.sjɔ̃/	lussiez /ly.sje/	lussent /lys/
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	lis /li/	—	lisons /li.zɔ̃/	lisez /li.ze/	—
1literary tenses

Related terms

• élire
• élu
• illisible
• illisiblement
• illisibilité
• lecteur, lectrice

• légende
• lisible
• lisiblement
• lisibilité
• relecture
• relire

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Italian lira, compare French livre.

Noun

lire f (plural lires)

1. lira (unit of currency)

Anagrams

• lier

Further reading

• “lire” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Noun

lire f

1. plural of lira

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Old French

Etymology

From Latin legere, present active infinitive of legō.

Verb

lire

1. (transitive, intransitive) to read
2. (reflexive, se lire) to be read

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb ends in a palatal stem, so there is an extra i before the e of some endings. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of lire (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		lire			avoir leü, lit
gerund		en lisant			Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle
present participle		lisant
past participle		leü, lit
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	li	lis	list	lisons	lisiez	lisent
	imperfect	lisoie, liseie	lisoies, liseies	lisoit, liseit	lisiiens, lisiens	lisiiez, lisiez	lisoient, liseient
	preterite	lui, lis	leüs, lesis	lut, list	leümes, lesimes	leüstes, lesistes	lurent, listrent
	future	lirai	liras	lira	lirons	liroiz, lireiz, lirez	liront
	conditional	liroie, lireie	liroies, lireies	liroit, lireit	liriiens, liriens	liriiez, liriez	liroient, lireient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior	Use the preterite tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	lise	lises	lise	lisiens, lisons	lisiez	lisent
	imperfect	leüsse, lesisse	leüsses, lesisses	leüst, lesist	leüssons, leüssiens, lesissons, lesissiens	leüssoiz, leüssez, leüssiez, lesissoiz, lesissez, lesissiez	leüssent, lesissent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	lis	—	lisons	lisiez	—

Related terms

• eslire
• relire

Descendants

• French: lire

Further reading

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (lire)