while loop removes quotes escapes making jq fail to parse json

"$response":

[{"word":"world","phonetic":"/wɝld/","phonetics":[{"text":"/wɝld/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/world-ca.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=238003","license":{"name":"BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"}},{"text":"/wɵːld/","audio":""},{"text":"/wɜːld/","audio":""},{"text":"/wɝld/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/world-us.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67249678","license":{"name":"BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0"}}],"meanings":[{"partOfSpeech":"noun","definitions":[{"definition":"(with \"the\") Human collective existence; existence in general.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"There will always be lovers, till the world's end."},{"definition":"The Universe.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"(with \"the\") The Earth.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"People are dying of starvation all over the world."},{"definition":"A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds."},{"definition":"A very large extent of country.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"(speculation) A realm, such as planet, containing one or multiple societies of beings, especially intelligent ones.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"the world of Narnia; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter; a zombie world"},{"definition":"An individual or group perspective or social setting.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"In the world of boxing, good diet is all-important."},{"definition":"The part of an operating system distributed with the kernel, consisting of the shell and other programs.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"A subdivision of a game, consisting of a series of stages or levels that usually share a similar environment or theme.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Have you reached the boss at the end of the ice world?"},{"definition":"The twenty-second trump or major arcana card of the tarot.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"A great amount.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Taking a break from work seems to have done her a world of good."},{"definition":"Age, era","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["planet","circle","Earth","Sol III","globe"],"antonyms":[]},{"partOfSpeech":"verb","definitions":[{"definition":"To consider or cause to be considered from a global perspective; to consider as a global whole, rather than making or focussing on national or other distinctions; compare globalise.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"To make real; to make worldly.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"license":{"name":"CC BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"},"sourceUrls":["https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/world"]}]

^ notice definition":"(with \"the\" <— quotes are escaped

echo "$response" | jq -c '.[].meanings[]' | while read meaning; do
  echo "$meaning"
  echo "$meaning" | jq -r '.'
  exit
done

^ returns:

{"partOfSpeech":"noun","definitions":[{"definition":"(with "the") Human collective existence; existence in general.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"There will always be lovers, till the world's end."},{"definition":"The Universe.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"(with "the") The Earth.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"People are dying of starvation all over the world."},{"definition":"A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds."},{"definition":"A very large extent of country.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"(speculation) A realm, such as planet, containing one or multiple societies of beings, especially intelligent ones.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"the world of Narnia; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter; a zombie world"},{"definition":"An individual or group perspective or social setting.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"In the world of boxing, good diet is all-important."},{"definition":"The part of an operating system distributed with the kernel, consisting of the shell and other programs.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"A subdivision of a game, consisting of a series of stages or levels that usually share a similar environment or theme.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Have you reached the boss at the end of the ice world?"},{"definition":"The twenty-second trump or major arcana card of the tarot.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"A great amount.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Taking a break from work seems to have done her a world of good."},{"definition":"Age, era","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["planet","circle","Earth","Sol III","globe"],"antonyms":[]}
jq: parse error: Invalid literal at line 1, column 64

quotes escapes are gone and jq fails to parse.

I have tried adding flags to echo (-n and -e) but that didn’t help.

>Solution :

notice definition":"(with \"the\" <— quotes are escaped

Use read -r:

while read -r meaning; do …

See man bash on read:

-r     Backslash does not act as an escape character.  The backslash
       is considered to be part of the line.  In particular, a
       backslash-newline pair may not then be used as a line
       continuation.