FATHOM OUT


Meaning of FATHOM OUT in English

fathom 2 BrE AmE ( also fathom out ) verb [transitive]

to understand what something means after thinking about it carefully SYN work out :

I still can’t fathom out what she meant.

fathom how/why/where etc

Mark couldn’t fathom why she resented him so much.

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THESAURUS

■ to understand something difficult

▪ grasp to completely understand an idea or a fact, especially a complicated one:

Some of his theories can be rather difficult for the ordinary reader to grasp.

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I don’t think Stuart really grasped the point I was making.

▪ fathom /ˈfæð ə m/ formal to understand what something means or the reasons for something, after thinking carefully about it:

She looked at him, puzzled, trying to fathom the reasons for his actions.

▪ make sense of something to understand something that is not easy to understand, especially by thinking about it:

People are still trying to make sense of the news.

▪ can’t make head nor tail of something spoken used when something seems impossible to understand:

I can’t make head nor tail of his plays, and I’m not sure that anyone else can either.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.