instruct - impart skills or knowledge to; "I taught them French"; "He instructed me in building a boat"train, educate, prepare, develop - create by training and teaching; "The old master is training world-class violinists"; "we develop the leaders for the future" indoctrinate - teach doctrines to; teach uncritically; "The Moonies indoctrinate their disciples" drill - teach by repetition reinforce, reward - strengthen and support with rewards; "Let's reinforce good behavior" spoonfeed - teach without challenging the students; "This professor spoonfeeds his students" induct - introduce or initiate; "The young geisha was inducted into the ways of her profession" mentor - serve as a teacher or trusted counselor; "The famous professor mentored him during his years in graduate school"; "She is a fine lecturer but she doesn't like mentoring" tutor - be a tutor to someone; give individual instruction; "She tutored me in Spanish" unteach - cause to disbelieve; teach someone the contrary of what he or she had learned earlier unteach - cause to unlearn; "teach somebody to unlearn old habits or methods" ground - instruct someone in the fundamentals of a subject lecture, talk - deliver a lecture or talk; "She will talk at Rutgers next week"; "Did you ever lecture at Harvard?" inform - impart knowledge of some fact, state or affairs, or event to; "I informed him of his rights" coach, train - teach and supervise (someone); act as a trainer or coach (to), as in sports; "He is training our Olympic team"; "She is coaching the crew" edify, enlighten - make understand; "Can you enlighten me--I don't understand this proposal" |