outlearn
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lûn, IPA(key): /aʊtˈlɜːn/
- (General American) enPR: lûrn, IPA(key): /aʊtˈlɝn/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
- Hyphenation: out‧learn
Verb
outlearn (third-person singular simple present outlearns, present participle outlearning, simple past and past participle outlearned or outlearnt)
- (transitive) To surpass (someone) in learning.
- By eleven years old, the young genius had outlearned most of his teachers.
- (transitive, obsolete) To learn (something) completely and thoroughly; to exhaust knowledge of.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24:
- But when as nought according to his mind / He could outlearne
- 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Eros”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 150:
- To love and be beloved; / Men and gods have not outlearned it; / And, how oft soe'er they've turned it, / 'Tis not to be improved.
Translations
to surpass (someone) in learning
to learn (something) completely and thoroughly
References
- “outlearn”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.