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.
UNDERSTANDABLE
Un`der*stand"a*ble, a.
Defn: Capable of being understood; intelligible. Chillingworth.