Read Between the Lines: Origin and Meaning

To try to understand what someone is really feeling or implying from what they say or write when they haven’t openly stated the truth.

This idiom originated from people using invisible ink to hide secret messages in letters, often in the military. They would write a normal, harmless letter in ordinary ink and then use invisible ink to write a secret message literally between the lines of the letter. To see the real message, the recipient would have to read between the lines!

“She said that there is nothing wrong with their relationship but reading between the lines, I think they’re going to break up soon.”

“I know they didn’t criticise the project directly, but if you read between the lines it’s clear that they weren’t happy with the result.”

Joe: “What happened when you asked Laura out on date last week?”
Tom: “She said that I’m a really good friend and she wants us to have dinner one day.”
Joe: “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”
Tom: “Why not? She wants to go for dinner!”
Joe: “You need to read between the lines! When a girl says you’re a good friend it means she doesn’t like you in any other way.”