Dictionary

outlearn en · VERB

Pronunciation

• lûn (Received-Pronunciation)
• /aʊtˈlɝn/ (General-American)
• /aʊtˈlɜːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• lûrn (General-American)

Etymology

From out- + learn.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To surpass (someone) in learning.
   • By eleven years old, the young genius had outlearned most of his teachers.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To learn (something) completely and thoroughly; to exhaust knowledge of.
   • But when as nought according to his mind / He could outlearne 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24:
   • 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. 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Eros”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 150:

Forms