Verb

To see someone or something as different from others.

* {{quote-book, author=De Lacy O'Leary, title=, year=1922

, passage=It had begun to take a leading place even in the days of the Ptolemies, and in scientific, as distinguished from purely literary work, it had assumed a position of primary importance early in the Christian era.}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}

To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.

To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.

* 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE

THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.

(obsolete) To make to differ.

* Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 7 (Douay version)

Who distinguisheth thee?

Verb

(lb) To be aware of the meaning of.

:

:

*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

*:I understand not what you mean by this.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith

, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}

To believe, based on information.

:

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.

To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.

:

:In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:

::

*(John Locke) (1632-1705)

*:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.

*

*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

To stand under; to support.

:(Shakespeare)