ppl. a. Obs. exc. dial. Also 2 læred, 3–6 lerd, 4–5 Sc. leyryt, 5–6 lerid, -it, 9 leared. [pple. of LERE v.] = LEARNED. Also absol., esp. in lered and lewd.
c. 1154. O. E. Chron., an. 1137. Þe biscopes & lered men heom cursede æure.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 129. Þe bisshupes, and þe oðre lerede þe wuneden in þe lond.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24806. Þis abbot … Was chosin … A lerd man o mikel lare.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxii. (Laurentius), 782. Quhethyre þai leyryt ore lawit ware.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Doctor’s T., 283. For be he lewed man or ellis lered.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 122. Patriarkis and prophetis, of lerit the laif.
c. 1450. Abce Aristotill, 21, in Q. Eliz. Acad., 65. Bothe lewid And lerid, Magnifie his mageste þat most is of myght.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lx. 41. The lerit sone of erll or lord.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars of Lond. (Camden), 89. The lerdemen of both the universytes.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v. Lare, He was, after all, a mensefully leared man.
