Dictionary:
teach (tēch)  |
v., taught (tôt), teach·ing, teach·es. v.tr.
- To impart knowledge or skill to: teaches children.
- To provide knowledge of; instruct in: teaches French.
- To condition to a certain action or frame of mind: teaching youngsters to be self-reliant.
- To cause to learn by example or experience: an accident that taught me a valuable lesson.
- To advocate or preach: teaches racial and religious tolerance.
- To carry on instruction on a regular basis in: taught high school for many years.
To give instruction, especially as an occupation.
[Middle English techen, from Old English tǣcan.]
SYNONYMS teach, instruct, educate, train, school, discipline, drill. These verbs mean to impart knowledge or skill. Teach is the most widely applicable: taught the child to draw; taught literature at the college. Instruct usually suggests methodical teaching: instructed the undergraduates in music theory. Educate often implies formal instruction but especially stresses the development of innate capacities: “We are educated by others … and this cultivation, mingling with our innate disposition, is the soil in which our desires, passions, and motives grow” (Mary Shelley). Train suggests concentration on particular skills intended to fit a person for a desired role: trained the vocational students to be computer technicians. School often implies an arduous learning process: schooled the youngster to play the viola. Discipline usually refers to the teaching of control, especially self-control: disciplined myself to exercise every day. Drill implies rigorous instruction or training, often by repetition of a routine: drilled the students by having them recite the multiplication tables.
