give someone to understand
give someone to understand verb: to tell someone, especially indirectly; to insinuate.
Verb
give someone to understand (third-person singular simple present gives someone to understand, present participle giving someone to understand, simple past gave someone to understand, past participle given someone to understand)
- To tell someone, especially indirectly; to insinuate.
- Hadn't she explained and described and even—though lightly, of course; she couldn't say such a thing directly—given him to understand that this was the one unforgivable thing.1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Revelations”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 264
Forms of give someone to understand
| third-person singular present | gives someone to understand |
|---|---|
| present participle | giving someone to understand |
| past | gave someone to understand |
| past participle | given someone to understand |
Questions about give someone to understand
- What does give someone to understand mean?
- Give someone to understand means to tell someone, especially indirectly; to insinuate.
- What part of speech is give someone to understand?
- Give someone to understand is a verb.
- What is the past tense of give someone to understand?
- The past tense of give someone to understand is gave someone to understand.
Words near give someone to understand in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: give someone to understand (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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