receive

verb
/ɹɪˈsiːv/

Etymology

From Middle English receyven, from Old French receivre, from Latin recipere (“take back, accept, etc.”), from re- (“back”) + capiō (“to take”); see capacious. Compare conceive, deceive, perceive. Displaced native Middle English terms in -fon/-fangen (e.g. afon, anfon, afangen, underfangen, etc. "to receive" from Old English -fōn), native Middle English thiggen (“to receive”) (from Old English þiċġan), and non-native Middle English aquilen, enquilen (“to receive”) (from Old French aquillir, encueillir).

  1. derived from recipiō — “take back, accept, etc.
  2. derived from recevoir
  3. inherited from receyven

Definitions

  1. To be given, sent, or paid something.

    • He received many presents for his birthday.
    • In America alone, people spent $170 billion on "direct marketing"—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
  2. To take, as something that is offered

    To take, as something that is offered; to accept.

    • He had the offer of employment, but he would not receive it.
    • Our hearts receiue your warnings.
    • The idea of solidity we receive by our touch.
  3. To take goods knowing them to be stolen.

  4. + 7 more definitions
    1. To act as a host for guests

      To act as a host for guests; to give admittance to; to permit to enter, as into one's house, presence, company, etc.

      • to receive a lodger, visitor, ambassador, messenger, etc.
      • And the barbarous people ſhewed vs no little kindneſſe: for they kindled a fire, and receiued us euery one becauſe of the preſent raine, and becauſe of the cold.
    2. To incur (an injury).

      • I received a bloody nose from the collision.
      • But because this is oftentimes dangerous, and much hurt hath been received thereby through casualty of fire, I advise the sticking four stakes into the earth, at least five feet above the ground [...]
    3. To allow (a custom, tradition, etc.)

      To allow (a custom, tradition, etc.); to give credence or acceptance to.

    4. To detect a signal from a transmitter.

    5. To be in a position to take possession, or hit back the ball.

    6. To accept into the mind

      To accept into the mind; to understand.

      • I cannot receive [translating recevoir] that manner, whereby we establish the continuance of our life.
    7. An operation in which data is received.

      • In the sonification of the PDE code, notes are scattered throughout a wide pitch range, and sends and receives are relatively balanced; although in the beginning of the application there are bursts of sends […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at receive. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01receive02offered03offer04contains05contain06constraints07constraint08irresistible09resist10accept

A definitional loop anchored at receive. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at receive

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA