All 18 Uses of
comprehend
in
Wuthering Heights
- On coming up from dinner, however, (N.B. — I dine between twelve and one o'clock; the housekeeper, a matronly lady, taken as a fixture along with the house, could not, or would not, comprehend my request that I might be served at five) — on mounting the stairs with this lazy intention, and stepping into the room, I saw a servant-girl on her knees surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders.†
p. 5.4comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- There was such anguish in the gush of grief that accompanied this raving, that my compassion made me overlook its folly, and I drew off, half angry to have listened at all, and vexed at having related my ridiculous nightmare, since it produced that agony; though WHY was beyond my comprehension.†
p. 20.3comprehension = the understanding of something
- With that he dashed headforemost out of the room, amid the merriment of the master and mistress, and to the serious disturbance of Catherine; who could not comprehend how her remarks should have produced such an exhibition of bad temper.†
p. 37.9comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- The notion of ENVYING Catherine was incomprehensible to him, but the notion of grieving her he understood clearly enough.†
p. 39.3incomprehensible = not understandablestandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incomprehensible means not and reverses the meaning of comprehensible. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- This is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar and myself.†
p. 58.9comprehends = understands something
- Nay, there's no comprehending it.†
p. 67.5comprehending = understanding
- Leaving aside the degradation of an alliance with a nameless man, and the possible fact that his property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a one's power, he had sense to comprehend Heathcliff's disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered, his mind was unchangeable and unchanged.†
p. 73.1comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- He raised his missile to hurl it; I commenced a soothing speech, but could not stay his hand: the stone struck my bonnet; and then ensued, from the stammering lips of the little fellow, a string of curses, which, whether he comprehended them or not, were delivered with practised emphasis, and distorted his baby features into a shocking expression of malignity.†
p. 79.4comprehended = understood completely
- And say what I could, I was incapable of making her comprehend it to be her own; so I rose and covered it with a shawl.†
p. 89.8comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- He replied in a jargon I did not comprehend.†
p. 100.1
- Two words would comprehend my future — DEATH and HELL: existence, after losing her, would be hell.†
p. 108.8
- Her hat was hung against the wall, and she seemed perfectly at home, laughing and chattering, in the best spirits imaginable, to Hareton — now a great, strong lad of eighteen — who stared at her with considerable curiosity and astonishment: comprehending precious little of the fluent succession of remarks and questions which her tongue never ceased pouring forth.†
p. 140.7comprehending = understanding
- She did not comprehend it; and hard work I had to obtain a promise that she would not lay the grievance before her father.†
p. 144.5comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- He did not thoroughly comprehend the meaning of his father's speech,
p. 150.9 *comprehend = understand
- Linton repeated his laugh, and glanced at Hareton tauntingly; who certainly did not seem quite clear of comprehension at that moment.†
p. 160.5comprehension = the understanding of something
- She stared, but soon comprehending why I counselled her to utter the falsehood, she assured me she would not complain.†
p. 206.1comprehending = understanding
- Then she comprehended that Earnshaw took the master's reputation home to himself; and was attached by ties stronger than reason could break — chains, forged by habit, which it would be cruel to attempt to loosen.†
p. 233.6comprehended = understood completely
- Earnshaw and I, the sexton, and six men to carry the coffin, comprehended the whole attendance.†
p. 244.6
Definitions:
-
(1)
(comprehend) to understand something -- especially to understand it completely
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely (and more frequently in the past), comprehend can mean to include as part of something broader. That was the first sense of the word listed in Webster's Dictionary of 1828 with this sample sentence: "The empire of Great Britain comprehends England, Scotland and Ireland, with their dependencies."