Meanings
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1
verb
To help someone learn something by giving them lessons or information.
Can you teach me to swim?
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2
verb
To give lessons, especially as a job.
She used to teach at a local primary school.
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3
verb
To show someone the bad results of something they did, often as a warning.
That'll teach you to be more careful next time.
Thesaurus
Common collocations
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…