Verb

(en verb)

To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of mystical knowledge or power.

*1590 , E. Daunce, A Briefe Discourse on the Spanish State , 40

*:After he had renounced his father]]s bishoprick of Valentia in Spaine... and to attaine by degrees the Maiesty of , was created Duke of that place, gaue for his poesie, Aut Cesar, aut nihil . which being not fauoured from the heauens, had presently the [[event, euent the same predicted .

:2000 , , (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) , xiii.

::Professor Trelawney kept predicting Harry’s death, which he found extremely annoying.

:2012 , (Jeremy Bernstein), " A Palette of Particles" in (American Scientist) , Vol. 100, No. 2, p. 146

::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 imply.

*1886 , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , 177. 338

*:It is interesting to see how clearly theory predicts the difference between the ascending and descending curves of a dynamo.

To make predictions.

*1652 , J. Gaule, ???-?????? the mag-astro-mancer , 196

*:The devil can both predict and make predictors.

(transitive, military, rare) To direct a ranged weapon against a target by means of a predictor.

*1943 , L. Cheshire, Bomber Pilot , iii. 57

*:They're predicting us now; looks like a barrage.

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)