v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Understood and Archaic Understanded; p. pr. & vb. n. Understanding. ] [ OE. understanden, AS. understandan, literally, to stand under; cf. AS. forstandan to understand, G. verstehen. The development of sense is not clear. See Under, and Stand. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Speaketh [ i. e., speak thou ] so plain at this time, I you pray,
That we may understande what ye say. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

I understand not what you mean by this. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Understood not all was but a show. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

A tongue not understanded of the people. Bk. of Com. Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To recognize or hold as being or signifying; to suppose to mean; to interpret; to explain. [ 1913 Webster ]

The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for granted; to assume. [ 1913 Webster ]

War, then, war,
Open or understood, must be resolved. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To stand under; to support. [ Jocose & R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To give one to understand, to cause one to know. --
To make one's self understood, to make one's meaning clear. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To have the use of the intellectual faculties; to be an intelligent being. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imparadised in you, in whom alone
I understand, and grow, and see. Donne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be informed; to have or receive knowledge. [ 1913 Webster ]

I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah. Neh. xiii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being understood; intelligible. Chillingworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who understands, or knows by experience. [ R. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding man. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An agreement of opinion or feeling; adjustment of differences; harmony; anything mutually understood or agreed upon; as, to come to an understanding with another. [ 1913 Webster ]

He hoped the loyalty of his subjects would concur with him in the preserving of a good understanding between him and his people. Clarendon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The power to understand; the intellectual faculty; the intelligence; the rational powers collectively conceived an designated; the higher capacities of the intellect; the power to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to adapt means to ends. [ 1913 Webster ]

But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Job xxxii. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

The power of perception is that which we call the understanding. Perception, which we make the act of the understanding, is of three sorts: 1. The perception of ideas in our mind; 2. The perception of the signification of signs; 3. The perception of the connection or repugnancy, agreement or disagreement, that there is between any of our ideas. All these are attributed to the understanding, or perceptive power, though it be the two latter only that use allows us to say we understand. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

In its wider acceptation, understanding is the entire power of perceiving an conceiving, exclusive of the sensibility: the power of dealing with the impressions of sense, and composing them into wholes, according to a law of unity; and in its most comprehensive meaning it includes even simple apprehension. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Specifically, the discursive faculty; the faculty of knowing by the medium or use of general conceptions or relations. In this sense it is contrasted with, and distinguished from, the reason. [ 1913 Webster ]

I use the term understanding, not for the noetic faculty, intellect proper, or place of principles, but for the dianoetic or discursive faculty in its widest signification, for the faculty of relations or comparisons; and thus in the meaning in which “verstand” is now employed by the Germans. Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Sense; intelligence; perception. See Sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an understanding manner; intelligibly; with full knowledge or comprehension; intelligently; as, to vote upon a question understandingly; to act or judge understandingly. [ 1913 Webster ]

The gospel may be neglected, but in can not be understandingly disbelieved. J. Hawes. [ 1913 Webster ]