All 28 Uses of
comprehend
in
Gone with the Wind
- The twins looked at each other and nodded, but without comprehension.†
Chpt 1.1 *comprehension = the understanding of something
- There was much about the South—and Southerners—that he would never comprehend: but, with the wholeheartedness that was his nature, he adopted its ideas and customs, as he understood them, for his own—poker and horse racing, red-hot politics and the code duello, States' Rights and damnation to all Yankees, slavery and King Cotton, contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women.†
Chpt 1.3comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- I thought Stuart—" Life and feeling and comprehension were beginning to flow back into her.†
Chpt 1.6comprehension = the understanding of something
- When first she looked at the crowd, Scarlett's heart had thumpthumped with the unaccustomed excitement of being at a party, but as she half-comprehendingly saw the high-hearted look on the faces about her, her joy began to evaporate.†
Chpt 2.9
- Then Mammy was in the room, Mammy with shoulders dragged down by two heavy wooden buckets, her kind black face sad with the uncomprehending sadness of a monkey's face.†
Chpt 3.24uncomprehending = not understandingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncomprehending means not and reverses the meaning of comprehending. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Of a sudden, the oft-told family tales to which she had listened since babyhood, listened half-bored, impatient and but partly comprehending, were crystal clear.†
Chpt 3.24comprehending = understanding
- She did not realize that the little boy lived shoulder to shoulder with terror too great for an adult to comprehend.†
Chpt 3.25comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- It was beyond their comprehension that they no longer had a hundred slaves to do the work.†
Chpt 3.25comprehension = the understanding of something
- It was beyond their comprehension that an O'Hara lady should do manual labor.†
Chpt 3.25
- The silence was so prolonged she wondered if Grandma could have failed to comprehend her desperate plight.†
Chpt 3.26comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- She simply could not comprehend what had happened and she went about Tara like a sleepwalker, doing exactly what she was told.†
Chpt 3.26
- It was beyond her comprehension that anyone could love Suellen.†
Chpt 3.28comprehension = the understanding of something
- She remembered the embarrassing and disgusting events of her brief honeymoon with Charles, his fumbling hands, his awkwardness, his incomprehensible emotions—and Wade Hampton.†
Chpt 4.32incomprehensible = 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.
- They were beyond her comprehension and vaguely irritating.†
Chpt 4.35comprehension = the understanding of something
- He felt there was something unbecoming about a woman understanding fractions and business matters and he believed that, should a woman be so unfortunate as to have such unladylike comprehension, she should pretend not to.†
Chpt 4.36
- He was quite beyond all comprehension.†
Chpt 4.36
- Ashley is too sublime for my earthy comprehension.†
Chpt 4.36
- Like monkeys or small children turned loose among treasured objects whose value is beyond their comprehension, they ran wild—either from perverse pleasure in destruction or simply because of their ignorance.†
Chpt 4.37
- Something of her lack of comprehension showed in her face and Ashley smiled.†
Chpt 4.42
- She had not known what he meant then but now bewildered comprehension was coming to her and with it a sick, weary feeling.†
Chpt 4.43
- Despite her fear and incomprehension, Scarlett thought she had never seen a blanker, more expressionless face than Rhett's but evidently Melanie saw something else, something that made her give her trust.†
Chpt 4.45incomprehension = lack of understanding of somethingstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incomprehension means not and reverses the meaning of comprehension. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- "The Klan—" At first, Scarlett spoke the word as if she had never heard it before and had no comprehension of its meaning and then: "The Klan!" she almost screamed it.†
Chpt 4.45comprehension = the understanding of something
- Anger wiped out the fear from Melanie's face as she saw comprehension come slowly across Scarlett's face and then horror follow swiftly.†
Chpt 4.45
- Scarlett, frightened, puzzled, glanced at Melanie and back to the sagging Ashley and then half-comprehension came to her.†
Chpt 4.45
- Rhett set down his glass and looked sharply into the small face and instant comprehension came into his eyes.†
Chpt 5.50
- At her words, his grip tightened and he began speaking rapidly, hoarsely, babbling as though to a grave which would never give up its secrets, babbling the truth for the first time in his life, baring himself mercilessly to Melanie who was at first, utterly uncomprehending, utterly maternal.†
Chpt 5.56uncomprehending = not understandingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncomprehending means not and reverses the meaning of comprehending. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Suellen was going to have another baby—she spelled this out so the children would not comprehend—and Ella had shown unwonted spirit in biting Suellen's oldest girl.†
Chpt 5.57comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely
- Her own life was so pleasant, so sheltered, so wrapped about with people who loved her, so full of kindness that what Mammy told her was almost beyond comprehension or belief.†
Chpt 5.59comprehension = the understanding of something
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."