lessons

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of lesson.

   Her swimming lessons paid off when she crossed the lake unaided.

   The war taught both nations bitter lessons about pride.

   Note

   A regular plural that carries every shade of the singular. It can mean swimming lessons on a timetable, the passages read aloud from scripture during a service, the stern rebukes a child receives, or the bitter lessons experience hands out. Context does the sorting. Hard experience and religious readings sit comfortably in the plural, while a single rebuke usually stays singular: she gave him a lesson.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of lesson.

   Note

   A rare verb hiding behind a familiar plural. It shares its spelling with the everyday noun, so only the sentence shows which one you are reading. As a verb it takes the person taught as its object, as in he lessons his pupils. Its older sense of simply instructing is archaic. Now uncommon, it sounds old-fashioned, and teaches or instructs is the safer choice in ordinary prose.

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