lear

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see also: Lear

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Noun

lear

1. (now Scotland) Something learned; a lesson.
2. (now Scotland) Learning, lore; doctrine.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii:

     when all other helpes she saw to faile, / She turnd her selfe backe to her wicked leares / And by her deuilish arts thought to preuaile [...].

   • 1898, Francis James Child (editor), Lord William, or Lord Lundy, from Child's Ballads,

     They dressed up in maids' array,

     And passd for sisters fair;

     With ae consent gaed ower the sea,

     For to seek after lear.

Verb

lear (lears, present participle learing; past and past participle leared)

1. (transitive, archaic and Scotland) To teach.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To learn.
   • 14thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale, from The Canterbury Tales,

     He hath take on him many a great emprise,

     Which were full hard for any that is here

     To bring about, but they of him it lear.

Noun

lear (plural lears)

1. Alternative form of lehr

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Lear

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /lɪə/
• (America) IPA: /lɪəɹ/

Proper noun

1. Surname
2. name of a legendary early king of Britain, the central character in Shakespeare's King Lear

Translations

• Russian: Лир

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