teach
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tiːt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -iːtʃ
Forms: form: teaches
form: teaching
form: taught
form: taught
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: teach
form: teach
form: taught
form: teach
form: teachest
form: taught
form: taughtest
form: teaches
form: teacheth
form: taught
form: teach
form: taught
form: teach
form: taught
form: teach
form: -
form: teaching
form: taught
Etymology: From Middle English techen, from Old English tǣċan (“to show, declare, demonstrate; teach, instruct, train; assign, prescribe, direct; warn; persuade”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikijan, from Proto-Germanic *taikijaną (“to show”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”).
Cognate with Scots tech, teich (“to teach”), German zeigen (“to show, point out”), zeihen (“accuse, blame”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (gateihan, “to announce, declare, tell, show, display”), Latin dīcō (“speak, say, tell”), Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “show, point out, explain, teach”), Sanskrit दिशति (diśati, “to point out, show, tell, teach”). More at token.
Senses: examples: text: Can you teach me to sew?  Can you teach sewing to me?
synonyms: educate
instruct
glosses: To pass on knowledge to.
examples: text: She used to teach at university.
antonyms: learn
glosses: To pass on knowledge generally, especially as one's profession; to act as a teacher.
examples: text: The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Deep Blue taught us a great deal about the power of the human mind precisely because it could not reproduce the intuitive and logical leaps of Kasparov’s mind. A truly synthetic cell, built from scratch or even from preexisting components, will be a cell without ancestry, and it, too, will teach us a great deal about the underlying complexities of life without actually reproducing them.
ref: 2013 September-October, Rob Dorit, “Making Life from Scratch”, in American Scientist:
glosses: To cause (someone) to learn or understand (something).
examples: text: I'll teach you to make fun of me!
glosses: To cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action.
examples: text: ‘The bliss is there’, mumbled the old man and taught to Heaven.
text: c1450, Mandeville's Travelsː
Blessed God of might (the) most.. teach us the right way unto that bliss that lasteth aye.
text: c1460, Cursor Mundiː
Till thy sweet sun uprose, thou keptest all our lay, how we should keep our belief there taught'st thou us the way.
text: So thus within a whyle as they thus talked the nyghte passed / and the daye shone / and thenne syre launcelot armed hym / and took his hors / and they taught hym to the Abbaye and thyder he rode within the space of two owrys
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book VI:
glosses: To show (someone) the way; to guide, conduct; to point, indicate.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: co-teach
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: don't teach your grandmother how to milk ducks
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: don't teach your grandmother to steal sheep
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: don't try to teach grandma how to suck eggs
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: forteach
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: home teach
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: pre-teach
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: reteach
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teachable
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach away
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teacher
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teacherly
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach grandma how to suck eggs
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach-in
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teaching
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach out
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach school
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach someone a lesson
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach someone who's the boss
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach the controversy
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach to read and write
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach to the test
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach who's boss
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: teach who's the boss
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: that'll teach someone
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: unteachable
sense: Terms derived from teach (verb)
word: you can't teach an old dog new tricks