read lips

read someone's lips

to manage to understand speech by watching and interpreting the movements of the speaker's lips. I couldn't hear her but I could read her lips.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Kuba	KUW-bah	Polish
Ognyana	-	Bulgarian
Pipaluk	-	Native American, Greenlandic
Cathryn	KATH-rin	English
Juha	YOO-hah	Finnish
Joseph	['dʒəuzif]