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I understand that a kanji can have several possible readings and several
(typically related) meanings. Furthermore, I've noticed that a single reading
typically corresponds to some subset of the meanings. To give a brief example:

生 can mean "birth", "genuine", or "life" (according to Kanjidic)

  * Pronounced せい it means "life", "living"
  * Pronounced なま it means "raw", "natural", etc.
  * Pronounced いき it means "lively"
  * Pronounced うむ (生む) it means "to give birth", "to produce"
  * Pronounced なる (生る) it means "to bear fruit" 
  * etc.

Is there any resource (book/website/database/etc.) which matches readings to
meanings? Bonus points if the resource is easily machine-readable - I'm
building some software for which the data would be valuable.
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kanji meaning resources
Relation between kanji readings and meanings
Yes there is.

This is probably what you want: [Romaji Desu](http://romajidesu.com/)

Here is an [example](http://www.romajidesu.com/meaning-of-%E7%94%9F.html):

> Definition of 生
>
> 生: いく /iku/ (pref) (arch) vital/virile/lively
>
> 生: うぶ /ubu/ (adj-na, n, adj-no) (1)
> innocent/naive/unsophisticated/inexperienced/green/wet behind the
> ears/(n-pref) (2) birth-
>
> 生: き /ki/ (n, pref) pure/undiluted/raw/crude
>
> 生: しょう /shou/ (n) (1) life/living
>
> 生: せい /sei/ (n) (1) life/living/(n,n-suf) (2) (male) (hum) I/me/myself
>
> 生: なま /nama/ (adj-no, adj-na, n, n-pref) (1) raw/uncooked/fresh/(2)
> natural/unedited/unprocessed/crude/(3) (col) unprotected (i.e. not wearing a
> condom)/(4) live (i.e. not recorded)/(5) inexperienced/unpolished/green/(6)
> (abbr) impudence/sauciness/(7) (abbr) unpasteurize
>
> 生: なまり /namari/ (io) (n) (uk) (abbr) boiled and half-dried bonito
>
> 生: ふ /fu/ (n, n-suf) area of thick growth (of trees, grass, etc.)
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I thought I should note that Jim Breen's
[Kanjidic2](http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/kanjidic2/ "Kanjidic2") does
this to some extent with the
[<rmgroup>](http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/kanjidic2/kanjidic2_dtdh.html
"<rmgroup>") tag. However the documentation mentions that:

> One major change, which will only be implemented gradually as it will
> require a lot of manual work, is to group the readings and the matching
> meanings.

I'm not sure how much this has progressed, but I'm guessing it is probably the
most comprehensive free resource out there.
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In 大辞泉 there are entries labelled 漢字項目 which sometimes give this information
for on-readings (where there is separation, and it's usually not particularly
clear-cut).

For example, [日](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch/0/0na/21068300/). Under ニチ
they give five meanings with example compounds, and under ジツ they give two
(out of the five given for ニチ already). So from that you can see that the
meaning 日本のこと is only given to the reading ニチ, for example.

Now for [生](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch/0/0na/20993800/). You'll see that
there are a number of readings given for セイ and ショウ and that both can take the
meaning of うむ and いきる in compounds, whereas セイ can also take the meaning of
なま. Overall, セイ has more possible meanings (I think this is probably just a
function of it being a more common reading).

If a kun-reading is given with okurigana (e.g. う・む) you can probably assume
that the most common meaning for that reading = the meaning of the
verb/adjective.

However, all of these will come with some level of vagueness factor, the more
so the more you try to boil the meaning down to something simple. "nama =
raw/natural" works in many cases but doesn't explain 生意気{なまいき} or 生返事{なまへんじ}.
Include more information and you end up basically replicating a kanji
dictionary.
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