LEARN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Learn

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/lərn/ Listen

verb

Learn v. t. (past & past part. learned or learnt; pres. part. learning)

To gain knowledge or information of; to ascertain by inquiry, study, or investigation; to receive instruction concerning; to fix in the mind; to acquire understanding of, or skill; as, to learn the way; to learn a lesson; to learn dancing; to learn to skate; to learn the violin; to learn the truth about something. "Learn to do well." "Now learn a parable of the fig tree."

To communicate knowledge to; to teach. (Obs.) "Hast thou not learned me how To make perfumes?" Note: Learn formerly had also the sense of teach, in accordance with the analogy of the French and other languages, and hence we find it with this sense in Shakespeare, Spenser, and other old writers. This usage has now passed away. To learn is to receive instruction, and to teach is to give instruction. He who is taught learns, not he who teaches.

Learn v. i. (past & past part. learned or learnt; pres. part. learning) To acquire knowledge or skill; to make progress in acquiring knowledge or skill; to receive information or instruction; as, this child learns quickly. "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me."

To learn by heart. See By heart, under Heart.

To learn by rote, to memorize by repetition without exercise of the understanding.

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Etymology of 'Learn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Learn" Quotes from Famous Books

... studied, in Edinburgh for a year and a half; at the end of which time it appeared to him that his knowledge of medicine would be much improved by foreign travel. There was Albinus, for example, "the great professor of Leyden," as he wrote to the credulous uncle, from whom he would doubtless learn much. When, having got another twenty pounds for travelling expenses, he did reach Leyden (1754), he mentioned Gaubius, the chemical professor. Gaubius is also a good name. That his intercourse with these learned ...

— Goldsmith - English Men of Letters Series • William Black

... our house is a fine one, we must live in it completely detached from its attractions: the same with regard to our friends, our amusements, our wealth, and all our possessions. It is obvious that in learning to do this we shall often suffer. The soul has painfully to learn that without God's Grace there is no virtue, no righteousness, and no sanctity: she learns by going forward upon Grace—perhaps to some great height: then Grace is withdrawn, the soul falls back, ...

— The Prodigal Returns • Lilian Staveley

... and thence with Lord Brouncker to the Duke of York's playhouse, where we saw "The Unfortunate Lovers," no extraordinary play, methinks, and thence I to Drumbleby's, and there did talk a great deal about pipes; and did buy a recorder, which I do intend to learn to play on, the sound of it being, of all sounds in the world, most pleasing to me. Thence home, and to visit Mrs. Turner, where among other talk, Mr. Foly and her husband being there, she did tell me of young ...

— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... you, my lord, for your kindness," returned Lord Shrope. "It is my desire also that the queen should learn of the affair at an early season. But the time ...

— In Doublet and Hose - A Story for Girls • Lucy Foster Madison

... But all day he and his wife made inquiries, and hoped against hope. All that they could learn was that the child and her parents came on board at New Orleans, where they had just arrived in a vessel from Cuba; that they looked like people from the Atlantic States; that the family name was Van Brunt and the child's name ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

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