Definition of "lectern" []

• A reading desk with a slanted top holding the books from which scriptural passages are read during a church service. (noun)
• A stand that serves as a support for the notes or books of a speaker. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Note 28: Since the bench beside the lectern is raised, and the base of the lectern overhangs the exposed side edge of the seat beneath, it would appear that the bench seat had been raised while retrieving the lectern from the cabinet, which was then placed on the bench below."
• "At the lectern is a twerp of a grad student — the prototypical A student — insecure, overbearing, full of himself and contempt for his students."
• "At Urbino, a large lectern is featured in the miniature studiolo: adjacent panels fold out to form what Rotondi has proposed as a bench and reading stand."