cotton on
Get the point
To cotton on is to grasp or understand something, especially after initial confusion: It took me a while to cotton on to what she was hinting at.
More common in British than American English.
You can cotton on to a joke, a scheme, or someone's true intentions.
The related phrase cotton to means to take a liking to something.
To fully understand
- graspSeize or understand
- get itUnderstand, often informally
- catch onGrasp or gain popularity
- twigSlender woody shoot
fathom · realize · perceive · discern · figure out · make sense of · see · get the picture
Sudden profound insight
- eurekaDiscovery triumph cry
- ahaExclamation of realization
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- dawningFirst light emerging
breakthrough · awakening · penny dropping · light bulb moment · click · flash · satori · moment of clarity
comprehend
To fully understand
twig · fathom · realize · perceive · discern · figure out · make sense of · see · get the picture · follow
epiphany
Sudden profound insight
- eurekaDiscovery triumph cry
- ahaExclamation of realization
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
dawning · breakthrough · awakening · penny dropping · light bulb moment · click · flash · satori · moment of clarity · comprehension
- catch oncatch on, figure out, realize, understand, twig
- "ways to "get" somethinggrab, seize, grasp, snatch, get
- understandunderstand, grasp, realize, comprehend, get it
- understandingunderstand, comprehend, grasp, fathom, follow
- Gossip & Cluesgossip, rumor, hearsay, leak, buzz
cotton onmiss the point
Fail to understand essence
miss · overlook · misunderstand · tune out · zone out
cotton, cottons, cottony, cottoned, cottonwood, cottoning, cottonseed, cottonseeds, cotton gin