teaches

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present of teach.

   The university teaches three sections of organic chemistry each fall.

   Experience teaches us to question assumptions before acting on them.

   Note

   The -es ending follows the ch of the stem, as in reaches and catches, and this is the form a singular subject takes: she teaches, experience teaches. It can carry two objects at once (she teaches children French), stand alone for a profession (he teaches), or warn of consequences (that teaches him). The same spelling also serves as the plural of informal "teach".

2. 2
   nouncolloquial

   Plural of teach.

   Note

   This plural belongs to the clipped, informal noun that stands for teacher. That noun is mostly used to address someone directly (thanks, teach), so the plural is the less usual move of talking about teachers rather than to one. It keeps the casual ring. It suits students or colleagues chatting, but it is out of place in a formal report, where teachers is the word.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of teache.

   The boiling house held a row of teaches set over a single furnace.

   Hot liquor was ladled between the teaches as it grew steadily denser.

   Note

   Sugar-making supplies this plural. A teache is one boiler in the series that cane juice passes through, and the word applies above all to the last of them, so in the plural it names the whole row. The singular teache was also an archaic spelling of the verb teach, so older texts can show it in either role. Context tells them apart: a boiling house or a lesson.

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