COMPREHEND • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Comprehend

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/kˌɑmprihˈɛnd/ Listen

verb

Comprehend v. t. (past & past part. comprehended; pres. part. comprehending)

To contain; to embrace; to include; as, the states comprehended in the Austrian Empire. "Who hath... comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure."

To take in or include by construction or implication; to comprise; to imply. "Comprehended all in this one word, Discretion." "And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying."

To take into the mind; to grasp with the understanding; to apprehend the meaning of; to understand. "At a loss to comprehend the question." "Great things doeth he, which we can not comprehend."

Synonyms: To contain; include; embrace; comprise; inclose; grasp; embody; involve; imply; apprehend; imagine; conceive; understand. See Apprehend.

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Etymology of 'Comprehend'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Comprehend" Quotes from Famous Books

... in a monastery; and he exhorted them to insist on the renewal and observance of it: the barons swore, that they would sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable a demand [x]. The confederacy began now to spread wider, and to comprehend almost all the barons in England; and a new and more numerous meeting was summoned by Langton at St. Edmondsbury, under colour of devotion. [MN Nov. 1.] He again produced to the assembly the old charter of Henry; renewed his exhortations of unanimity and ...

— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume

... your note yesterday surprised me. By what right you presume to refer to any harmony of relations between us, and to speak of the value of my "friendship" I am at a loss to comprehend. That harmony was first disturbed by the pecuniary difficulties in which you so dishonestly involved me, and from which I am only now beginning to extricate myself, apart from which I could entertain no feelings of "friendship" for an officer for whom I have such abundance ...

— Nuts for Future Historians to Crack • Various

... worse almost than all that would harm Pelle himself, were the glimpses he now and then had of the depths of humanity: in the face of these his child's brain was powerless. Why did the mistress cry so much and drink secretly? What went on behind the windows in the big house? He could not comprehend it, and every time he puzzled his little brain over it, the uncomfortable feeling only seemed to stare out at him from all the window-panes, and sometimes enveloped him in all the ...

— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... did the president of the Atlantic Bridge Company comprehend the trap he had walked into, but now the whole hideous business became apparent. He had been fooled, swindled, and in a way to render recourse impossible; nay, in a manner to blacken his reputation if the story became public. He fell actually ill from the passion of his rage and ...

— Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories • Rex Beach

... not seem at once to comprehend, but when his sons had persuaded him to sit, he made a peremptory motion with his stick towards the old councillor who had spoken before. This individual glanced at the chief for permission, and having received it, told me this ...

— The Priest's Tale - Pere Etienne - From "The New Decameron", Volume III. • Robert Keable

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