5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Understanding  \Un`der*stand"ing\,  a. 
  Knowing;  intelligent;  skillful;  as  he  is  an  understanding 
  man. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Understanding  \Un`der*stand"ing\,  n. 
  1.  The  act  of  one  who  understands  a  thing  in  any  sense  of 
  the  verb  knowledge;  discernment;  comprehension; 
  interpretation;  explanation. 
 
  2.  An  agreement  of  opinion  or  feeling;  adjustment  of 
  differences;  harmony;  anything  mutually  understood  or 
  agreed  upon  as  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  another. 
 
  He  hoped  the  loyalty  of  his  subjects  would  concur 
  with  him  in  the  preserving  of  a  good  understanding 
  between  him  and  his  people.  --Clarendon. 
 
  3.  The  power  to  understand;  the  intellectual  faculty;  the 
  intelligence;  the  rational  powers  collectively  conceived 
  an  designated;  the  higher  capacities  of  the  intellect;  the 
  power  to  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood,  and  to  adapt 
  means  to  ends 
 
  There  is  a  spirit  in  man;  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
  Almighty  them  understanding.  --Job  xxxii 
  8. 
 
  The  power  of  perception  is  that  which  we  call  the 
  understanding.  Perception,  which  we  make  the  act  of 
  the  understanding,  is  of  three  sorts:  1.  The 
  perception  of  ideas  in  our  mind;  2.  The  perception 
  of  the  signification  of  signs;  3.  The  perception  of 
  the  connection  or  repugnancy,  agreement  or 
  disagreement,  that  there  is  between  any  of  our 
  ideas.  All  these  are  attributed  to  the 
  understanding,  or  perceptive  power,  though  it  be  the 
  two  latter  only  that  use  allows  us  to  say  we 
  understand.  --Locke. 
 
  In  its  wider  acceptation,  understanding  is  the 
  entire  power  of  perceiving  an  conceiving,  exclusive 
  of  the  sensibility:  the  power  of  dealing  with  the 
  impressions  of  sense  and  composing  them  into 
  wholes,  according  to  a  law  of  unity;  and  in  its  most 
  comprehensive  meaning  it  includes  even  simple 
  apprehension.  --Coleridge. 
 
  4.  Specifically,  the  discursive  faculty;  the  faculty  of 
  knowing  by  the  medium  or  use  of  general  conceptions  or 
  relations.  In  this  sense  it  is  contrasted  with  and 
  distinguished  from  the  reason. 
 
  I  use  the  term  understanding,  not  for  the  noetic 
  faculty,  intellect  proper,  or  place  of  principles, 
  but  for  the  dianoetic  or  discursive  faculty  in  its 
  widest  signification,  for  the  faculty  of  relations 
  or  comparisons;  and  thus  in  the  meaning  in  which 
  ``verstand''  is  now  employed  by  the  Germans.  --Sir 
  W.  Hamilton. 
 
  Syn:  Sense  intelligence;  perception.  See  {Sense}. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Understand  \Un`der*stand"\  ([u^]n`d[~e]r*st[a^]nd"),  v.  t.  [imp. 
  &  p.  p.  {Understood},  and  Archaic  {Understanded};  p.  pr  & 
  vb  n.  {Understanding}.]  [OE.  understanden,  AS  understandan 
  literally,  to  stand  under  cf  AS  forstandan  to  understand, 
  G.  verstehen  The  development  of  sense  is  not  clear.  See 
  {Under},  and  {Stand}.] 
  1.  To  have  just  and  adequate  ideas  of  to  apprehended  the 
  meaning  or  intention  of  to  have  knowledge  of  to 
  comprehend;  to  know  as  to  understand  a  problem  in 
  Euclid;  to  understand  a  proposition  or  a  declaration;  the 
  court  understands  the  advocate  or  his  argument;  to 
  understand  the  sacred  oracles;  to  understand  a  nod  or  a 
  wink. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  understanding 
  adj  :  characterized  by  understanding  based  on  comprehension  and 
  discernment  and  empathy;  "an  understanding  friend" 
  n  1:  the  cognitive  condition  of  someone  who  understands;  "he  has 
  virtually  no  understanding  of  social  cause  and  effect" 
  [syn:  {apprehension},  {discernment},  {savvy}] 
  2:  the  statement  (oral  or  written)  of  an  exchange  of  promises; 
  "they  had  an  agreement  that  they  would  not  interfere  in 
  each  other's  business";  "there  was  an  understanding 
  between  management  and  the  workers"  [syn:  {agreement}] 
  3:  an  inclination  to  support  or  be  loyal  to  or  to  agree  with  an 
  opinion;  "his  sympathies  were  always  with  the  underdog"; 
  "I  knew  I  could  count  on  his  understanding"  [syn:  {sympathy}] 
  4:  the  capacity  for  rational  thought  or  inference  or 
  discrimination;  "we  are  told  that  man  is  endowed  with 
  reason  and  capable  of  distinguishing  good  from  evil"  [syn: 
  {reason},  {intellect}] 
 
  From  THE  DEVIL'S  DICTIONARY  ((C)1911  Released  April  15  1993)  [devils]: 
 
  UNDERSTANDING,  n.  A  cerebral  secretion  that  enables  one  having  it  to 
  know  a  house  from  a  horse  by  the  roof  on  the  house.  Its  nature  and 
  laws  have  been  exhaustively  expounded  by  Locke,  who  rode  a  house,  and 
  Kant,  who  lived  in  a  horse. 
 
  His  understanding  was  so  keen 
  That  all  things  which  he'd  felt,  heard,  seen, 
  He  could  interpret  without  fail 
  If  he  was  in  or  out  of  jail. 
  He  wrote  at  Inspiration's  call 
  Deep  disquisitions  on  them  all 
  Then,  pent  at  last  in  an  asylum, 
  Performed  the  service  to  compile  'em. 
  So  great  a  writer,  all  men  swore, 
  They  never  had  not  read  before 
  Jorrock  Wormley 
 
 

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