learn

know/learn something (off) by heart

if you know or learn something, especially a piece of writing, by heart, you know or learn it so that you can remember it perfectly. He's my favourite poet. I know several of his poems by heart.

See also: heart, know

learn your lesson

to learn something useful about life from an unpleasant experience. I'm never going to mix my drinks again - I've learnt my lesson.

See also: lesson

learn something off pat (British, American & Australian, American)

to learn something so well that you do not have to think about how to do or say it. All the answers he'd learned off pat for the interview sounded unconvincing now.

See also: pat

You live and learn. (British, American)

something that you say when you have just discovered something that you did not know. I had no idea they were related. Oh well, you live and learn.

See also: live

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learn (something) the hard way

to obtain knowledge or understanding through experience. We'd never done anything like this, so we learned how to build a house the hard way. Since he won't take advice from anyone, I guess he is going to have to learn the hard way.

Usage notes: often used in the form find (something) out the hard way: He found out the hard way that he needed help.I debated where to put this; here or at "learn the hard way" & did it both ways! then chose this, as it's easy enough to define here & is used occasionally with other words (eg, discover)--SL, 10/02

See also: hard, way

learn a/your lesson

to understand something because of an unpleasant experience. We learned a lesson from last year's failure to reform health care. You hope that prisoners will say, “I don't want to end up back in jail again – I've learned my lesson.”

See also: lesson

learn the ropes

to understand how to do a particular job or activity. It'll take some time for the new receptionist to learn the ropes.

Usage notes: sometimes used in the forms know the ropes to understand how something is done and show someone the ropes or teach someone the ropes to teach someone how something is done: You'd better find someone to show you the ropes if you're going to fix the car yourself.

See also: rope