But I
must explain for the benefit of the uninitiated. A pun, in the
elegant college dialect, is called a razor, while an attempt at a
pun is styled a _sick razor_. The _sick_ ones are by far the most
numerous; however, once in a while you meet with one in quite
respectable health."--Vol. XIII. p. 283.

The meeting will be opened with _razors_ by the Society's jester.
--_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Behold how Duncia leads her chosen sons,
All armed with squibs, stale jokes, _dull razors_, puns.
_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.

READ. To be studious; to practise much reading; e.g. at Oxford, to
_read_ for a first class; at Cambridge, to _read_ for an honor. In
America it is common to speak of "reading law, medicine," &c.

We seven stayed at Christmas up to _read_;
We seven took one tutor.
_Tennyson, Prologue to Princess_.

In England the vacations are the very times when you _read_ most.
_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 78.

This system takes for granted that the students have "_read_," as
it is termed, with a private practitioner of medicine.--_Cat.
Univ. of Virginia_, 1851, p. 25.

READER. In the University of Oxford, one who reads lectures on
scientific subjects.--_Lyell_.

2. At the English universities, a hard student, nearly equivalent
to READING MAN.

Most of the Cantabs are late _readers_, so that, supposing one of
them to begin at seven, he will not leave off before half past
eleven.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 21.

READERSHIP. In the University of Oxford, the office of a reader or
lecturer on scientific subjects.--_Lyell_.

READING. In the academic sense, studying.

One would hardly suspect them to be students at all, did not the
number of glasses hint that those who carried them had impaired
their sight by late _reading_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 5.

READING MAN. In the English universities, a _reading man_ is a
hard student, or one who is entirely devoted to his collegiate
studies.--_Webster_.

The distinction between "_reading men_" and "_non-reading men_"
began to manifest itself.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 169.

We might wonder, perhaps, if in England the "[Greek: oi polloi]"
should be "_reading men_," but with us we should wonder were they
not.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 15.

READING PARTY. In England, a number of students who in vacation
time, and at a distance from the universi