Read Someone Like a Book

Meaning of Idiom ‘To Read Someone Like a Book’

To (be able to) read someone like a book means to understand someone completely and to be able to discern their thoughts, emotions, character, motives, desires, etc. ¹Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.,²Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,³Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

See the related idiom an open book.

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Sentence Examples

“Don’t try to fool me, I can read you like a book!”

“I love to play poker with John. He always loses because I can read him like a book.”

“I tried to fool my wife the other day and told her I was at work when I was really out with friends. Problem is, she can read me like a book and I knew the jig was up as soon as I walked in the front door.”

Origin

Used since the mid-1800’s.

More Idioms Starting with R

• Run a Fever
• Rub Someone the Wrong Way
• Raw Deal, a
• Running On Fumes
• Run a Bath

More Book Idioms

• Every Name in the Book, been called
• Are You Writing a Book?
• Bookworm
• Open Book, an
• Closed Book, a

More Like Idioms

• Like Herding Cats
• Like Nobody’s Business
• Know Something Like the Back Of One’s Hand
• Watch Like a Hawk
• Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

More Read Idioms

• Don’t Believe Everything You Read
• Read Between the Lines

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