UNDERSTAND

Definitions

1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.