Verb

(decid)

To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.

The election will be decided on foreign policies.

We must decide our next move.

Her last-minute goal decided the game.

* Shakespeare

The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.

To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.

You must decide between good and evil.

I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.

* Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40

So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.

To cause someone to come to a decision.

* 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),

It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.

(obsolete) To cut off; to separate.

* Fuller

Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.

Verb

(lb) To be aware of the meaning of.

:

:

*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

*:I understand not what you mean by this.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith

, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}

To believe, based on information.

:

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.

To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.

:

:In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:

::

*(John Locke) (1632-1705)

*:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.

*

*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

To stand under; to support.

:(Shakespeare)