read between the lines
Formsreads between the lines, reading between the lines, read between the lines
- 1To understand a meaning that someone hints at but does not say directly.
Like guessing how a friend really feels from the look on their face, not just their words.
If you read between the lines, you can tell she's unhappy with the plan.
He learned to read between the lines of his boss's short, polite emails.
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Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with read between the lines, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
It probably comes from notes written between the lines of a text, which gave readers extra information not stated in the text itself.