All 9 Uses of
comprehend
in
Arrowsmith
- Yet this afternoon he read steadily at the section on the lymphatic system, and he muttered the long and perfectly incomprehensible words in a hum which made drowsier the dusty room.†
Chpt 1incomprehensible = 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.
- He discovered that Duer had enthusiasm for two composers, called Bach and Beethoven, presumably Germans, and that he himself did not yet comprehend all the ways of the world.†
Chpt 3comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- Martin found himself in a confusion of little chairs and vast gilded arches, of polite but disapproving ladies with programs in their laps, unromantic musicians making unpleasant noises below and, at last, incomprehensible beauty, which made for him pictures of hills and deep forests, then suddenly became achingly longwinded.†
Chpt 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.
- That Martin had to work, Clif never comprehended.†
Chpt 10 *comprehended = understood completely
- When he comprehended that apparently they very much had discharged him, he was shamed that he should have given them a chance to kick him.†
Chpt 12
- He could not comprehend that he was really going to a place of palm trees and brown faces and languid Christmas Eves.†
Chpt 32comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- They were silent together, and when his hand crept to hers they sat unimpassioned, comprehending, free to talk of what they would.†
Chpt 35comprehending = understanding
- "And you really would have me give up my work—" He saw that with all her eager complaisances she had never understood what he was up to, had not comprehended one word about the murderous effect of the directorship on Gottlieb.†
Chpt 40comprehended = understood completely
- He began, incredulously, to comprehend his freedom.†
Chpt 40comprehend = 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."