To form a particular interpretation or understanding of someone's or something's inherent nature. Because of my neutral accent, most people read me as being from the Midwest, when I actually grew up in the Bronx. A: "Didn't you think that scene was in bad taste?" B: "Huh, I read it as a satire, so I assumed that was the point." I read the story as an allegory of the dangers inherent in a plutocracy.