live and learn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Gain experience and knowledge from mistakes
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Instead of prison being used, as it could be, as a living and learning centre for human relationships, prisoners are savagely taught that it is dangerous to let your feelings be seen because they can be used against you.
But, then, you live and learn.’
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “live and learn” mean?
Gain experience and knowledge from mistakes
Is “live and learn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.