lesson
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“I read, I gather”). Doublet of lection.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
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], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 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!
Noun edit
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; 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:
- 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:
- 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.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
section of learning or teaching
|
learning task assigned to a student
|
something learned
|
something that serves as a warning or encouragement
|
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
Verb edit
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, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- 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, stanza LXVIII:
- To rest the weary, and to soothe the sad,
Doth lesson happier men, and shame at least the bad.
Translations edit
to give a lesson; to teach
See also edit
lesson on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Lesson in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
lesson
- Alternative form of lessoun