ˈejəˌkāt, usu -ād.+V verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English educaten, from Latin educatus, past participle of educare to rear, bring up, educate, from e- + -ducare (from ducere to lead) — more at tow
transitive verb
1. obsolete : to bring up (as a child or animal) : rear
2.
a. : to develop (as a person) by fostering to varying degrees the growth or expansion of knowledge, wisdom, desirable qualities of mind or character, physical health, or general competence especially by a course of formal study or instruction : provide or assist in providing with knowledge or wisdom, moral balance, or good physical condition especially by means of a formal education
more things than a formal schooling serve to educate a man
educate their children by tutors
educated rather by wide experience than by books
the poverty of the institutions which educate her mind and her body — Virginia Woolf
: provide with formal schooling
educated at a prep school and then at college
b. : to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a trade, skill, or profession
educates physically handicapped children for useful work — American Guide Series: Michigan
educate a dog to sit up and beg
felt that he needed to educate himself more before he could understand the larger machines the factory operated
c. : to provide with information : inform
can … educate himself as to the most desirable attributes of the good field-trial dog — W.F.Brown b. 1903
d. : to bring about an improvement in or refinement of
one of the most important arenas for the exercise of intelligence, in purging and educating our values — P.W.Bridgman
psychoanalysis has educated our sensibilities — Abram Kardiner
3.
a. : accustom
the absence of an accustomed stimulant to which she had educated his nerves — Francis Hackett
b.
(1) : to condition or persuade to feel, believe, or react in a particular way by providing with often selective information or knowledge
spent some time trying to educate the club membership to place more responsibility and trust in the club officers
educate stockholders and keep them eager to support the companies they own — Time
educate people to call the police without hesitation — V.A.Leonard
furniture manufacturers … put on a national drive to educate people to desire homes that are more attractive and livable — N.C.Brown
(2) : to make willing to accept (as by providing with knowledge, information, or experience) — used with in or to
educating the leaders in the wisdom of a change — L.S.B.Leakey
people of the world are more educated to international organization — André Schenker
educate the Filipinos to the necessity of giving blood — Irene Kuhn
4. : to make (as a person) competent in the handling of or in dealing with by preparation, discipline, or expansion of knowledge or competence — used with to and a secondary object
a greater moral perceptiveness and a will educated to a new social responsibility — Lucius Garvin
5.
a. : to remove (as from a person's makeup) by education — used with out of
the fundamental preference for one's own race and breed neither is wholly educated into one nor can be wholly educated out of one — Katharine F. Gerould
educate bad manners out of a child
b. : to raise (as to a higher social or cultural level) by education
educating underprivileged children up to a better level of opportunity
intransitive verb
: to educate a person, a thing, or a group
the belief that a teacher should confine himself to educating and avoid proselytizing
Synonyms: see teach