Cotton on and Take

Related terms

Cotton on verb - Understand, usually after some initial difficulty.

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Take and cotton on are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Take" instead a verb "Cotton on".

Take verb - To reach for and take hold of by embracing with the fingers or arms.

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Cotton on and take are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Cotton on" instead a verb "Take".

Nearby Words: taking, taken, taker

Most Pokémon are restricted to speaking their own names, although the humans around them sometimes take a long time to cotton on to their intentions.

Source: He Who Must Not Be Heard
Princess Celestia immediately asks Twilight whether or not the "friend" is standing in front of her, something Twilight denies, but it doesn't take Celestia long to cotton on to what is going on.

Source: Fanfic / I Have This Friend...
One could consider Vader's gambit as this, since it doesn't take into account how dangerous it is to let the heroes escape with the Death Star's blueprints, but Star Wars villains tend to suffer from terminal overconfidence and never seem to cotton on to their exploitable weaknesses anyway.

Source: Didn't Think This Through

Cite this Source

Take and Cotton on. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 02, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/cotton_on/take

Cotton on & Take. N.p., 2016. Web. 02 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/cotton_on/take>.

Take or Cotton on. 2016. Accessed August 02, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/cotton_on/take.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "cotton on" and "take" have occurred on timeline