UNDERSTAND • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Understand

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/ˌəndərstˈænd/ Listen

verb

Understand v. t. (past & past part. understood, archaic understanded; pres. part. understanding)

To have just and adequate ideas of; to apprehended the meaning or intention of; to have knowledge of; to comprehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration; the court understands the advocate or his argument; to understand the sacred oracles; to understand a nod or a wink. "Speaketh (i. e., speak thou) so plain at this time, I you pray, That we may understande what ye say." "I understand not what you mean by this." "Understood not all was but a show." "A tongue not understanded of the people."

To be apprised, or have information, of; to learn; to be informed of; to hear; as, I understand that Congress has passed the bill.

To recognize or hold as being or signifying; to suppose to mean; to interpret; to explain. "The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel."

To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for granted; to assume. "War, then, war, Open or understood, must be resolved."

To stand under; to support. (Jocose & R.)

To give one to understand, to cause one to know.

To make one's self understood, to make one's meaning clear.

Understand v. i. (past & past part. understood, archaic understanded; pres. part. understanding)

To have the use of the intellectual faculties; to be an intelligent being. "Imparadised in you, in whom alone I understand, and grow, and see."

To be informed; to have or receive knowledge. "I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah."

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Etymology of 'Understand'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Understand" Quotes from Famous Books

... to understand that some one has given you orders referring to the Princess? I thought this was simply some idle suspicion of ...

— The International Spy - Being the Secret History of the Russo-Japanese War • Allen Upward

... combining the necessary letters; and then, if he turns to the roots, he will probably find that many of the words he has created in this way were actually used long ago, and this pratice will enable him more easily to understand in what sense, or on what plane, any particular letter should be taken. I think it probably that in the Sacred Language before mentioned, this could at once have been recognized by a difference in the intonation of the voice. This may have been a survival to some extent of the chanting which was ...

— AE in the Irish Theosophist • George William Russell

... turn tail at that inn. I really don't know why I didn't tell you at the time, but it was just the opposite. That loud, red-faced brute is one of the cleverest thieves in London, and I once had a drink with him and our mutual fence. I was an Eastender from tongue to toe at the moment, but you will understand that I don't run unnecessary risks of recognition ...

— The Amateur Cracksman • E. W. Hornung

... childhood was passed in an unusually serene and happy home. In Development he tells how, at five years of age, he was made to understand the main facts of the Trojan War by his father's clever use of the cat, the dogs, the pony in the stable, and the page-boy, to impersonate the heroes of that ancient conflict. Latin declensions were taught the child by rhymes ...

— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... very cautious that they do not get caught in a trap). They rode up closer, looking intently at me all the time and talking to each other. I motioned with both hands while I was standing on top of the coach to come and I made them understand that I was friendly. They answered by Indian signs, then gave a big yell,—an Indian whoop—that liked to have froze the blood in the veins of the passengers. They gave this whoop three times, and ...

— The Second William Penn - A true account of incidents that happened along the - old Santa Fe Trail • William H. Ryus

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