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to cotton on
[phrase form: cotton]
01
to manage to understand something, typically following an initial period of challenge or difficulty
Example
She didn't immediately understand the instructions, but after a few minutes, she finally cottoned on and completed the task.
I couldn't figure out the meaning of the joke initially, but as the punchline approached, I finally cottoned on and burst into laughter.
He was dropping subtle hints about the project, and it took me a moment to cotton on that he wanted my input.
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