Un`der*stand" (ŭn`dẽr*stănd"), 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.

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 ones self understood, to make ones meaning clear."

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.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913