Word.ws English Dictionary

reading someone's lips

reading someone's lips is the present participle and gerund of read someone's lips.

Meaning of read someone's lips

Verb

read someone's lips (third-person singular simple present reads someone's lips, present participle reading someone's lips, simple past and past participle read someone's lips)

  1. To discern what someone is saying by watching the shape of the mouth rather than by hearing the sounds of the words.
    • Deaf people may be able to read people's lips, but it's not a foolproof means of communication.
  2. (idiomatic) To pay close attention (often imperative).
    • Read my lips. We are not going to the park today, and that is final.

Questions about reading someone's lips

What is reading someone's lips the present participle and gerund of?
Reading someone's lips is the present participle and gerund of read someone's lips.

Words near reading someone's lips in the dictionary

  1. reading rooms
  2. reading someone for filth
  3. reading someone the riot act
  4. reading someone to filth
  5. reading someone's beads
  6. reading someone's lips
  7. reading someone's mind
  8. reading stone
  9. reading stones
  10. reading the car
  11. reading the green

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reading someone's lips (page history and authors); read someone's lips (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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