Definition of 'know'
Verb
(lb) To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of or that.
:
(lb) To be aware of; to be cognizant of.
:
*|chapter=1
|title= Mr. Pratt's Patients
|chapter=1
|passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew , made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
(lb) To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.
:
*
(lb) To experience.
:
*1991 , Irvin Haas, Historic Homes of the American Presidents , p.155:
*:The Truman family knew good times and bad,.
(lb) To distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.
:
*(Bible)'', ''(w) 7.16 :
*:Ye shall know them by their fruits.
*
*:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
*1980 , Armored and mechanized brigade operations , p.3−29:
*:Flares do not know friend from foe and so illuminate both. Changes in wind direction can result in flare exposure of the attacker while defenders hide in the shadows.
(lb) To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.
* (Thomas Flatman), Translation of Part of (Petronius) Arbiter's (Satyricon)
*:At nearer view he thought he knew the dead, / And call'd the wretched man to mind.
*1818 , (w), (Frankenstein) :
*:Ernest also is so much improved, that you would hardly know him:.
To understand from experience or study.
:
(lb) To understand (a subject).
:
*
To have sexual relations with.
*, (w) 4.1:
*:And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
(lb) To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.
:
*
*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
*
(lb) To be or become aware or cognizant.
:
To be acquainted (with another person).
*1607 , (William Shakespeare), (Antony and Cleopatra) , :
*:You and I have known , sir.
Quotations
* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), Julius Caesar , scene 1:
*: O, that a man might know' / The end of this day's business ere it come! / But it sufficeth that the day will end, / And then the end is ' known .
* 1839 , (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), The Light of Stars'', ''Voices of the Night :
*: O fear not in a world like this, / And thou shalt know' erelong, / ' Know how sublime a thing it is, / To suffer and be strong.
*
Usage notes
* "Knowen" is found in some old texts as the past participle.
* In some old texts, the form "know to [verb]" rather than "know how to [verb]" is found, e.g. Milton wrote "he knew himself to sing, and build the lofty rhymes".
Derived terms
* God knows
* God only knows
* it's not what you know but who you know
* know about
* know-all
* know beans about
* know from
* know-how
(
rel-mid3)
* know inside and out
* know-it-all
* knowledge
* know like a book
* know like the back of one's hand
* know-nothing
* know of
* know one's ass from a hole in the ground
(
rel-mid3)
* know one's own mind
* know one's way around
* know someone in the biblical sense
* know which end is up
* know which way is up
* not know someone from Adam
* the dear knows
(
rel-bottom)
Related terms
* get to know
Noun
(
en-noun)
Knowledge; the state of knowing.
* 1623 , William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1623 first folio edition), act 5, scene 2:
- That on the view and know of these Contents, death,
Derived terms
* in the know
References
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Statistics
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