overlearnv.
/ˌəʊvəˈləːn/, U.S. /ˌoʊvərˈlərn/ transitive. To learn more than adequately or sufficiently; to learn or study excessively; (Psychology and Education) to learn to the point where a response becomes instinctive, esp. by repeated study or practice.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > learning impairment > [verb (transitive)] > learn to excess
overlearn1867
1867 Quiver 25 Dec. 228/1 They think of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, which God feeds and clothes without any care of their own, and literally overlearn the lesson.
1874 Fortn. Rev. Feb. 238 A lesson which..most Englishmen have already overlearnt.
1929 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (rev. ed.) iii. 94 Material that has been ‘over-learned’, i.e., studied beyond the point where it can barely be recited without error, is forgotten more slowly.
1963 W. B. Kolesnik Educ. Psychol. x. 248 She wants him to overlearn the material.
1982 B. Seaton Handbk. Eng. Lang. Teaching Terms & Pract. (BNC) 46 The dialogue should be overlearned to the point of automatic response to the dialogue situation.
1995 New Yorker 4 Dec. 112/1 His detractors..would maintain that what he did was not learn but overlearn English.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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v.1867- raise a stink
- raise and rend
- raise cain
- raise camp
- raise eyebrows
- raise from death, to life
- raise from the dead
- raise hell
- raise hob
- raise in flesh
- raise in flesh and fell
- raise its head
- raise its ugly head
- raise kick make a stink
- raise kick up a stink
- raise land
- raise merry hell
- raise moorburn
- raise ned
- raise of death, to life
- raise old ned
- raise one's eyebrow
- raise one's eyebrow an eyebrow
- raise one's eyebrows
- raise one's eyebrows an eyebrow