read between the lines

1. 1.

   read what is implied but not expressed on the surface

   Broaderinterpret

Questions about read between the lines

What does read between the lines mean?

read between the lines means "read what is implied but not expressed on the surface".

Is read between the lines a common word?

read between the lines is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.