Meaning of cotton on to | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To come to know or understand (something).
   slang
2. Synonym of cotton to (“like, tolerate”).
   archaic, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“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 Kamchatka's truly-appalling levels of gunnery prevented it from having started several new wars, by not actually hitting anything.”

CEFR level