lesson
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“I read, I gather”). Doublet of lection.
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /ˈlɛsn̩/
- Homophone: lessen
- Hyphenation: les‧son
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛsən
VerbEdit
lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)
- (archaic) To instruct to teach.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 107:
- And you, my sister—you, who lesson me on endurance, your cheek is pale, and your step languid; even with you, how much has life lost its interest!
NounEdit
lesson (plural lessons)
- A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
- In our school a typical working week consists of around twenty lessons and ten hours of related laboratory work.
- A learning task assigned to a student; homework.
- Something learned or to be learned.
- Nature has many lessons to teach to us.
- Something that serves as a warning or encouragement.
- I hope this accident taught you a lesson!
- The accident was a good lesson to me.
- A section of the Bible or other religious text read as part of a divine service.
- Here endeth the first lesson.
- A severe lecture; reproof; rebuke; warning.
- a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127:
- She would give her a lesson for walking so late.
- 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 222716698:
- 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.
- (music) An exercise; a composition serving an educational purpose; a study.
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
section of learning or teaching
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learning task assigned to a student
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something learned
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something that serves as a warning or encouragement
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section of the Bible or other religious text read as part of a divine service
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
VerbEdit
lesson (third-person singular simple present lessons, present participle lessoning, simple past and past participle lessoned)
- To give a lesson to; to teach.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto vi:
- her owne daughter Pleasure, to whom shee
Made her companion, and her lessoned
In all the lore of loue, and goodly womanhead.
- 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], OCLC 22697011, stanza LXVIII:
- To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad,
Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.
TranslationsEdit
to give a lesson; to teach
See alsoEdit
lesson on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Lesson in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
NounEdit
lesson
- Alternative form of lessoun