cotton on to

present singular third person cottons on to · participle present cottoning on to · participle past cottoned on to · past cottoned on to · alternative cotton onto

1. slangTo come to know or understand (something).

   1 more example

   Buuut the Kamchatka eventually showed up, with news: whilst the main fleet had almost triggered a war with the British Empire, she'd managed to outdo them all, by reporting that, not only had she fired three hundred shells in an engagement with three Japanese ships, but, in fact, had shot at a Swedish merchantman, a German trawler, and a French schooner, putting the Russians at odds with almost every other major European fleet in existence. Fortunately, everyone else seemed to cotton on to' the truly-appalling level of captaincy on the Kamchatka, and those incidents were quietly dropped. This was coupled with the fact that Kamchatkas truly-appalling levels of gunnery prevented it from having started several new wars, by not actually hitting anything.

   2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 26:59 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2023

2. archaicslangSynonym of cotton to (“like, tolerate”).

   Synonyms: cotton to