1. 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.
Chaucer.
I understand not what you mean by this.
Shak.
Understood not all was but a show.
Milton.
A tongue not understanded of the people.
Bk. of Com. Prayer. 2. To be apprised, or have information, of; to learn; to be informed of; to hear; as, I understand that Congress
has passed the bill.
3. 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.
Locke. 4. To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for granted; to assume.
War, then, war,
Open or understood, must be resolved.
Milton. 5. To stand under; to support. [Jocose & R.] Shak.
To give one to understand, to cause one to know. — To make one's self understood, to make
one's meaning clear.
Understand
(Un`der*stand"), v. i.
1. 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.
Donne. 2. To be informed; to have or receive knowledge.
I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah.
Neh. xiii. 7.
