book learning
noun
knowledge acquired by reading books, as distinguished from that obtained through observation and experience.
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book learning
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book-learning
book-learningnounknowledge gained from books rather than from direct personal experience
book learning
Americannoun
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knowledge acquired by reading books, as distinguished from that obtained through observation and experience.
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formal education.
She thought that common sense was just as important as book learning.
book-learning
British
noun
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knowledge gained from books rather than from direct personal experience
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formal education
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of book learning
First recorded in 1580–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In supple pentameter, Shakespeare explores the difference between the book learning the young men meant to engage in and the learning that emerges, despite their plans, from “the prompting eyes of beauty’s tutors.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
But what he lacks in book learning he’s more than made up for in wisdom, humanity and street smarts.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023
A new book illuminates that debate — now focused on all disadvantaged children — and reveals the remarkable success that vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts have had strengthening job skills and book learning.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2022
“While book learning was the star of the show up until now, practical, hands-on learning has come into the picture.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2020
But what is important to Gilbert is not just book learning, or even the performing of experiments.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
He is an intellectual at a time when many deem book-learning dangerous and cheap.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 23, 2022
It was too ambitious, lurid with “a vile overdaubing with a coat of book-learning and mysticism.”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 22, 2019
They did not know much about book-learning, but they knew good building materials when they saw them.
From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014
Rush, and Rush fans, are long used to being the butt of the joke – kimono-wearing, book-learning, heavily moustachioed Canadian prog-rock overlords never seemed likely to be at the cutting edge of cool.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 24, 2011
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is furious to find Michael Cassio, ‘a great arithmetician’, whose knowledge of warfare is all book-learning, has been promoted ahead of him.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
