▪ I. ˈteaching, vbl. n.
Forms: see the verb.
[f. teach v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb teach.
† 1. Showing the way; direction, guidance. Obs.
| 13.. Cursor M. 11656 (Gött.) Forth þai went þar wai fra þan Widvten teching of ani man. |
2. a. The imparting of instruction or knowledge; the occupation or function of a teacher.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 93 Alle þeo..him ihersummede efter godes tecunge. c 1275 Passion 255 in O.E. Misc. 44 He hym axede of his techinge And of his disciples. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxvii. (Machor) 372 Thru theching of þe haly gast. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 68 The barnis..wald nouther tak teching na chastisement of the fader. 1530 Palsgr. 279/2 Teching, lerning, enseignement. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 189 It may bee for teaching⁓sake parted into two portions. 1656 tr. Hobbes's Elem. Philos. (1839) 80 Teaching is nothing but leading the mind of him we teach, to the knowledge of our inventions, in that track by which we attained the same. 1715 De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. i. (1841) I. 8, I can say that without teaching. 1862 Helps Organization 50 In teaching, he has not to display knowledge, but to impart it. |
b. That which is taught; a thing taught, doctrine, instruction, precept.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2655 And if þou halds mi techeyng; O þe sal com bath prince and king. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vii. 74 Cui des, videto is catounes techynge. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 42 Whyche may be to alle the worlde a nobylle document and techyng. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 1 Suche bookes, writinges..teachinges and instructions, as be pestiferous, and noysome. 1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. iii. 139 In the middle of the fourteenth century, the teaching of Wickliffe gained ground in England. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiii. 426 A character and teaching, human Hebrew, Syrian, in its outward form and colour, but in its inward spirit..Divine. |
† 3. Delivering, handing over.
Obs. rare.
| c 1300 Cursor M. 15416 (Cott.) In handes yur i [Judas] sal him teche;..And godder-hail þan sal þou se, For luue o þis techeing. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. as
teaching aid,
teaching load,
teaching material,
teaching post,
teaching process;
teaching hospital, a hospital at which medical students are instructed;
teaching machine, a mechanical device for giving instruction in the form of a teaching programme which allows a pupil to progress according to his response to questions of choice.
| 1966 Rep. Comm. Inquiry Univ. Oxf. II. 470 They might even be encouraged to use occasionally the odd teaching aid. 1980 Underground Grammarian Dec. 1/2 Think of the audio-visual devices and the teaching aids. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 169 God..hath put this teaching-businesse into their hands. |
| 1963 in A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 51 All the large teaching hospitals have psychiatric out-patient departments. 1980 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 29 Mar. 924/2 The London teaching hospitals, which for so long had served their local population, and which had now been set aside to serve the needs of education, began instead to bear the brunt of the specialised services. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers I. iv. 300 The Church is the teaching-house of holiness. |
| 1958, etc. Teaching load [see load n. 4 c]. 1958 Science 24 Oct. 971 (caption) Student at work on a teaching machine. 1969 J. Argenti Managem. Techniques 215 This method can be used..with a teaching machine. These machines consist of a box like a television set in which there is a film strip. 1972 H. J. Eysenck Psychol. is about People iii. 147 Sidney L. Pressey in the mid-1920s designed the precursors of our modern automated teaching machines. |
| 1960 Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 20 Nov. 4/4 The student fits teaching material into the box and then uses them [sic] at his own speed. 1962 Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 10 June 4 There have been no sinecures or teaching posts for famous jazzmen. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xvii. 254 We regard recording as an essential element in the actual teaching process. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 283 Vnable to performe this teaching-seruice. 1881 Nature 17 Feb. 379/2 Preserving the soft tissues..as teaching-specimens. 1879 P. Brooks Influence of Jesus i. 25 Jesus is coming home from one of his teaching-tours in Galilee. |
▪ II. ˈteaching, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] a. That teaches, or has the quality or function of teaching.
| 1853 J. Cumming Foreshadows vii. (1854) 188 The great typical and teaching disease. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 217 Differences of opinion between the teaching and the medical professions. 1899 Daily News 19 Apr. 3/5 What was needed was teaching sermons. Mod. To change the University of London from a merely examining into a teaching university. |
b. Special collocations, as
teaching elder: see
elder n.3 4;
teaching fellow U.S., a student at a graduate school who carries out teaching or laboratory duties in return for a stipend, free tuition, or other benefit.
| 1642 T. Lechford Plain Dealing 15 Some Churches have no ruling Elders, some but one, some but one teaching Elder, some have two ruling, and two teaching Elders. 1735 in C. Hazard Thos. Hazard (1893) 226 We the Subscribers, Teaching Elders or Pastors of the first gathered..Church in Boston New England. 1936 S. E. Morison Three Centuries of Harvard i. 18 There were no funds to maintain more than two teaching fellows. 1979 C. MacLeod Luck runs Out (1981) xvii. 169 He'd come there as a teaching fellow... He taught the subject ably. |
Hence
ˈteachingly adv. rare, in a way that teaches, instructively.
| 1870 Spurgeon Treas. David Ps. xxx. 7 How touchingly and teachingly God corrected his servant's mistake. |