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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Understand \Un`der*stand"\ ([u^]n`d[~e]r*st[a^]nd"), v. t. [imp.
& p. p. {Understood} ([u^]n`d[~e]r*st[oo^]d"), 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.
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Speaketh [i. e., speak thou] so plain at this time,
I you pray,
That we may understande what ye say. --Chaucer.
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I understand not what you mean by this. --Shak.
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Understood not all was but a show. --Milton.
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A tongue not understanded of the people. --Bk. of
Com. Prayer.
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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.
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3. To recognize or hold as being or signifying; to suppose to
mean; to interpret; to explain.
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The most learned interpreters understood the words
of sin, and not of Abel. --Locke.
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4. To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for
granted; to assume.
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War, then, war,
Open or understood, must be resolved. --Milton.
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5. To stand under; to support. [Jocose & R.] --Shak.
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{To give one to understand}, to cause one to know.

{To make one's self understood}, to make one's meaning clear.
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Understanding \Un`der*stand"ing\ ([u^]n`d[~e]r*st[a^]nd"[i^]ng),
a.
Knowing; intelligent; skillful; as, he is an understanding
man.
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Understanding \Un`der*stand"ing\, n.
1. The act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of
the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension;
interpretation; explanation.
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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.
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He hoped the loyalty of his subjects would concur
with him in the preserving of a good understanding
between him and his people. --Clarendon.
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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.
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But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of
the Almighty giveth them understanding. --Job xxxii.
8.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Syn: Sense; intelligence; perception. See {Sense}.
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