All 3 Uses of
comprehend
in
Treasure Island
- The arms are easy found, in the sand-hill, N. point of north inlet cape, bearing E. and a quarter N. J.F. That was all; but brief as it was, and to me incomprehensible, it filled the squire and Dr. Livesey with delight.†
Chpt 6incomprehensible = 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.
- I could not comprehend why the watchmen had taken no alarm.
Chpt 23 *comprehend = understand
- And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend.†
Chpt 24comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
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."