Word.ws English Dictionary

given someone to understand

given someone to understand is the past participle of give someone to understand.

Meaning of give someone to understand

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)

  1. (idiomatic, chiefly passive voice) 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

Questions about given someone to understand

What is given someone to understand the past participle of?
Given someone to understand is the past participle of give someone to understand.

Words near given someone to understand in the dictionary

  1. given someone the shits
  2. given someone the slip
  3. given someone the time
  4. given someone their cards
  5. given someone their flowers
  6. given someone to understand
  7. given someone what for
  8. given someone what-for
  9. given someone wood
  10. given something a go
  11. given something a miss

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: given someone to understand (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “given someone to understand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/given_someone_to_understand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.