[learn] vb learned ; learn.ing [ME lernen, fr. OE leornian; akin to OHG lernen to learn, OE last footprint, L lira furrow, track] vt (bef. 12c) 1 a (1): to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience "~ a trade" (2): memorize "~ the lines of a play" b: to come to be able "~ to dance" c: to come to realize "~ed that honesty paid"
2. a nonstand: teach b obs: to inform of something
3: to come to know: hear "we just ~ed that he was ill" ~ vi: to acquire knowledge or skill or a behavioral tendency syn see discover -- learn.able adj -- learn.er n usage Learn in the sense of "teach" dates from the 13th century and was standard until at least the early 19th "made them drunk with true Hollands--and then learned them the art of making bargains --Washington Irving". But by Mark Twain's time it was receding to a speech form associated chiefly with the less educated "never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump --Mark Twain". The present-day status of learn has not risen. This use persists in speech, but in writing it appears mainly in the representation of such speech or its deliberate imitation for effect.