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Webster 1913 Edition


Comprehend

Comˊpre-hend′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Comprehended
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Comprehending
.]
[L.
comprehendere
,
comprehensum
;
com-
+
prehendere
to grasp, seize;
prae
before +
hendere
(used only in comp.). See
Get
, and cf.
Comprise
.]
1.
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.
Is. xl. 12.
2.
To take in or include by construction or implication; to comprise; to imply.
Comprehended
all in this one word, Discretion.
Hobbes.
And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended
in this saying.
Rom. xiii. 9.
3.
To take into the mind; to grasp with the understanding; to apprehend the meaning of; to understand.
At a loss to
comprehend
the question.
W. Irwing.
Syn. – To contain; include; embrace; comprise; inclose; grasp; embody; involve; imply; apprehend; imagine; conceive; understand. See
Apprehend
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Comprehend

COMPREHEND

,
Verb.
T.
Literally, to take in; to take with, or together.
1.
To contain; to include; to comprise.
The empire of Great Britain comprehends England, Scotland and Ireland, with their dependencies.
2.
To imply; to contain or include by implication or construction.
If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Rom. 13.
3.
To understand; to conceive; that is, to take, hold or contain in the mind; to possess or to have in idea; according to the popular phrase, I take your meaning.
God doeth great things, which we cannot comprehend. Job 37.
It is not always safe to disbelieve a proposition or statement, because we do not comprehend it.

Definition 2024


comprehend

comprehend

English

Verb

comprehend (third-person singular simple present comprehends, present participle comprehending, simple past and past participle comprehended)

  1. (now rare) To include, comprise; to contain. [from 14th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.1:
      And lothly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee, / That nought but gall and venim comprehended […].
    • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2009, p. 9:
      In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.
  2. To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly. [from 14th c.]

Translations

Related terms


French

Verb

comprehend

  1. third-person singular present indicative of comprehendre