lesson
[les-uh n]
- a section into which a course of study is divided, especially a single, continuous session of formal instruction in a subject: The manual was broken down into 50 lessons.
- a part of a book, an exercise, etc., that is assigned to a student for study: The lesson for today is on page 22. He worked assiduously at his music lesson.
- something to be learned or studied: the lessons of the past.
- a useful piece of practical wisdom acquired by experience or study: That accident certainly taught him a lesson in careful driving.
- something from which a person learns or should learn; an instructive example: Her faith should serve as a lesson to all of us.
- a reproof or punishment intended to teach one better ways.
- a portion of Scripture or other sacred writing read or appointed to be read at a divine service; lection; pericope.
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- to teach; instruct; give a lesson to.
- to admonish or reprove.
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Origin of lesson
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
practice, task, study, instruction, reading, teaching, test, lecture, education, class, exercise, homework, message, warning, assignment, schooling, recitation, period, drill, quizExamples from the Web for lesson
Contemporary Examples
The second lesson is that no one writing before the twentieth century holds a key to our problems.
The testimony is damning: the world has not learned its lesson.
The question is whether universities will learn their lesson.
How The University of Wisconsin Badgers Are Bucking the Big Ten Ticket FlopBrian Weidy
October 31, 2014
So maybe we should take a lesson from women with brass ovaries: comedy and feminism are longstanding bedfellows.
Isn't it time Kate took a lesson from her grandmother-in-law and weighted down those skirts against the pesky wind?
Historical Examples
You'd better not tell him so, or he might give you a lesson in politeness.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
The healthy and the young might read a lesson on her blanched and wrinkled cheek.
He had learned his lesson of experience, and profited thereby.
A Night OutEdward Peple
And after the lesson he had given them but the night before!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
The use of a Scripture lesson is, of course, optional with the pastor.
An Explanation of Luther's Small CatechismJoseph Stump
lesson
- a unit, or single period of instruction in a subject; classan hour-long music lesson
- the content of such a unit
- material assigned for individual study
- something from which useful knowledge or principles can be learned; example
- the principles, knowledge, etc, gained
- a reprimand or punishment intended to correct
- a portion of Scripture appointed to be read at divine service
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- (tr) rare to censure or punish
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Word Origin
C13: from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, from legere to read
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for lesson
n.
early 13c., "a reading aloud from the Bible," also "something to be learned by a student," from Old French leçon, from Latin lectionem (nominative lectio) "a reading," noun of action from past participle stem of legere "to read" (see lecture (n.)). Transferred sense of "an occurrence from which something can be learned" is from 1580s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with lesson
lesson
see learn one's lesson; teach a lesson.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.