When you receive something, you get it after someone gives it to you or sends it to you.

You can use receive to say that certain kinds of thing happen to someone. For example if they are injured, you can say that they received an injury.

When you receive a visitor or a guest, you greet them.

If you say that something is received in a particular way, you mean that people react to it in that way.

When a radio or television receives signals that are being transmitted, it picks them up and converts them into sound or pictures.

If someone receives stolen goods, they buy or are given things that have been stolen.

If you are on the receiving end or at the receiving end of something unpleasant, you are the person that it happens to.