What does "cotton on" mean?

To realize; come to understand.

What is a synonym for "cotton on"?

Common synonyms include: catch on, get it, get onto, get wise, latch on, tumble.

Cotton on

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To realize; come to understand. intransitive
"“That is what most people in the country have thought about the Tory party for decades. […] Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people. They don’t care about the NHS. And the public has kind of cottoned on to that.”"
2
understand, usually after some initial difficulty wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

catch on get it get onto get wise latch on tumble

Example

More examples

"“That is what most people in the country have thought about the Tory party for decades. […] Tory MPs largely do not care about these poorer people. They don’t care about the NHS. And the public has kind of cottoned on to that.”"

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