English

Proper noun

Lear

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

Translations

English

Noun

lear ‎(countable and uncountable, plural lears)

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.

Etymology 2

See lere.

Verb

lear ‎(third-person singular simple present lears, present participle learing, simple 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.

Etymology 3

See lehr.

Noun

lear ‎(plural lears)

1. Alternative form of lehr

Anagrams

• earl, Earl; lare; rale; real

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l̠ʲaɾˠ/

Noun

lear m ‎(genitive singular lir)

1. (literary or archaic, except in phrases) sea, ocean

Derived terms

• thar lear ‎(“overseas”)

Volapük

Noun

lear ‎(plural lears)

1. olive tree

Declension