Unteach
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To cause (someone) to unlearn; to make (someone) forget something they have been taught, or recognize it as erroneous, etc. transitive
"The heart of man has been long mistaught, and, I fear, it will require something that shall come closer home than legal enactments to unteach it. And nothing but example can teach it anew. It will never learn to love instead of to hate, […]"
- 2 cause to disbelieve; teach someone the contrary of what he or she had learned earlier wordnet
- 3 To cause (something previously learned) to be forgotten, or recognized as an error, etc. transitive
""I did say that the mass was the Romish name for the sacrament." Upon which the rector "beat his head like a man distracted;" and declared that he should into the school and unteach that also."
- 4 cause to unlearn wordnet
Example
More examples"The heart of man has been long mistaught, and, I fear, it will require something that shall come closer home than legal enactments to unteach it. And nothing but example can teach it anew. It will never learn to love instead of to hate, […]"
Etymology
From un- + teach.
More for "unteach"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.