v. [UN-2 3. Cf. MDu. ont-, onleren, older Fl. ontleeren, MLG. and G. entleren.]
1. trans. To discard from knowledge or memory; to give up knowledge of (something).
In very frequent use from c. 1630.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, I. xi. 12. Withstonde þyne inclinacion & unlerne evel custom.
1547. Baldwin, Mor. Philos. (1551), N iij. The best kynde of learnynge is to vnlearne our euyls.
1575. Vautrollier, Luther on Ep. Gal., 188. It is to vs no lesse labour to vnlearne and forget the same.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit. (1627), 9. Those things which are hurtfull,… they must bee taught to vnlearne againe.
1686. W. de Britaine, Hum. Prud., i. 2. The most necessary learning for mans life, is to unlearn that which is nought and vain.
1779. Mirror, No. 12. As they have learned many foreign, so have they unlearned some of the … best understood home phrases.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 6. Thou hast given A boon which I will not resign, and taught A lesson not to be unlearned.
1866. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xviii. 363. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearnt in a few years.
b. absol., or const. with inf.
1530. Palsgr., 768/2. It is a payne to lerne thynges, but a man may unlerne by goyng a huntyng.
1584. Lyly, Campaspe, II. ii. Alex. How should one learn to be content? Diog. Vnlearn to couet.
1631. P. Fletcher, Piscatory Eclog., III. xi. How canst unlearn by learning to forget it?
1649. F. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 351. In these I learn to shun sin, I un-learn to blush at repentance for offences.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 120. According to an axiom founded on daily experience, to unlearn and forget are very difficult.
1823. Monthly Mag., LVI. 125. It is … long since the Romans have unlearned to conquer.
1868. Lowell, Parting of the Ways, 59. That way lies Youth, and Wisdom,… For only by unlearning Wisdom comes.
2. To unteach.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 7. [The microscope] wil ocularly evince and unlearn them their opinions.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), V. 495. Legal learning … can never have unlearnt a man the difference between three and one and a half.
1863. Susan Warner, Old Helmet, v. I must unlearn you a little of your kindness.
1893. Harper’s Mag., Dec., 61/2. He’s jest said what I’ve been a-learnin’ ’im…. But he’s got to be unlearned.
Hence Unlearning vbl. sb.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 7. 46. Art is only the unlearning of what is unnatural.
1873. E. H. Thompson, Baron de Renty, ii. 43. What was to others a school for the unlearning of every Christian, nay, of every natural, feeling of compassion, was to him a provocative of their greater development.
