by rote

by rote

By memory, perhaps without true understanding of the topic. Ask Becky to recite the poem—she knows it by rote. Research shows that simply learning things by rote doesn't always translate into the best grasp of the material.
See also: by, rote
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

by rote

[of learning or memorizing] done as habit and without thinking. I simply memorized the speech by rote. I don't know what it means. The student learns everything by rote and doesn't really understand the concepts.
See also: by, rote
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

by rote

If you do something by rote, you do it without thinking about it or understanding it properly, often because you have learned about it by repeating it many times. It is easy to forget how much learning was done by rote in the past. He uses the same old lectures, delivered by rote.
See also: by, rote
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • by heart
  • rote
  • know (something) by heart
  • know by heart
  • dictionary
  • encyclopedia
  • a walking dictionary
  • a walking dictionary, encyclopedia, etc.
  • learn (something) by heart
  • learn by heart
References in periodicals archive
The answer was given that children are taught more by rote and less to think for themselves.
Stephen Byers may yet have to learn that 7x8 is 56 and not 54, but that would have to be learned by rote rather than by him thinking for himself.
That training is built on a foundation of learning, by rote, an enormous amount of information about the human body, about diseases, symptoms and therapies, about tests and diagnostics.
What this confusion about the Real Presence may indicate is that some, perhaps many, articles of our Catholic faith that we learned by rote, or at least without careful catechetical instruction, are fragile reeds that bend easily in almost any wind.
do exactly what I'm doing and saying as I transmit to you by rote what I got by rote from someone who got it from God by rote."
Unfortunately, group insurance plans are often sold by rote. There are very few instances where we run into a plan that is very creative.
Shaak's young students learn both how to play pieces by rote and to read music notation.
But many teachers taught children by rote 'behind closed doors', she said.
Also, there's a sense that it is done by rote. People think mistakenly that "it" is important rather than "I'm important because I know how to use my body in these ways." The critical element in teaching the technique is allowing each person to come to terms with her own limitations, to challenge her, but to also fill her with confidence about how she can move with strength and flexibility.
But for Christians, particularly in those denominations that still recite the ancient church creeds, the words "suffered under Pontius Pilate" will never again fall trippingly off their tongue or be recited by rote. What Gibson's Passion does, if nothing else, is to drive home how great was the sacrifice Jesus made on Calvary.
Yet other scenes seem to rattle off the greatest hits of Sunday school as if by rote. McNally may want us to think about the wisdom that suffering brings to oppressed people, but he doesn't show that happening onstage.
One reason given for avoiding memorization was that people should not be made to "learn by rote" what they could not understand.
At its best, this made for infectious group energy and a sense of common purpose; at its weakest, it seemed like a language learned by rote, not yet the flexible instrument with which to create drama and poetry onstage.
The dancers, whose performances until this point had seemed to be by rote, finally began to connect emotionally to the movement.