cotton on

Verb

cotton on (third-person singular simple present cottons on, present participle cottoning on, simple past and past participle cottoned on)

1. (intransitive) To realize; come to understand.
   • “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.”2019 July 30, Rowena Mason, “Dominic Cummings said Tory MPs do not care about poor people or NHS”, in The Guardian
   • In the late aughts, a number of entrepreneurs cottoned on to the idea of reducing emissions by producing fake meat that carnivores could love.2023 July 9, Annie Lowrey, “Open Your Mind to Unicorn Meat”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms:

   catch on, glom on