know

verb

1. (transitive)To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be certain of; to be certain that.

   “Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.”

   “'[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.' 'Thank you, sir.' Did he hell. They never bloody did.”

   “I know that I’m right and you’re wrong.”

   “He knew something terrible was going to happen.”

2. (intransitive)To be or become aware or cognizant.

   “Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.”

   “Malware's sometimes been known to sit dormant for a long time.”

   “‘A Gentleman!’ quoth the Squire, ‘who the Devil can he be? Do, Doctor, go down and ſee who ’tis. Mr. Blifil can hardly be come to town yet.—Go down, do, and know what his Buſineſs is.[’]”

3. (transitive)To be aware of; to be cognizant of.

   “Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.”

   “She knows where I live.”

   “I knew he was upset, but I didn't understand why.”

   “I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.”

   “Discovered in 2015, the planet known as K2-18b is twice the size of Earth with eight times the mass. While it is thought to be rocky, no one knows if water’s flowing on the surface.”

4. (intransitive, obsolete)To be acquainted (with another person).

   “You, and I haue knowne ſir.”

5. (transitive)To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

   “I know your mother, but I've never met your father.”

   “Borja, do you know Pilar? - Sure, we've actually met before.”

   “I got to know her during the pandemic, so we've known each other for years now.”

   “I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I shall have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I had left New York for the West.”

   “Marsha is my roommate. — I know Marsha. She is nice.”

6. (archaic, euphemistic, transitive)To be acquainted or familiar with; to have encountered.

   “AFterwarde the man knewe Heuáh his wife, which cõceiued & bare Káin, & ſaid, I haue obteined a man by yͤ Lord.”

   “Now Gerald had never thought of her having a mother. Then there must have been a father, too, some time. And Miss Wilmarth existed because two people once had loved and known. It was not a thought to dwell upon.”

   “Wait a second. Are you… attempting to know me?”

7. (transitive)To experience.

   “Their relationship knew ups and downs.”

   “The Truman family knew good times and bad,[…].”

8. To understand or have a grasp of through experience or study.

   “Let me do it. I know how it works.”

   “She knows how to swim.”

   “His mother tongue is Italian, but he also knows French and English.”

   “She knows chemistry better than anybody else.”

   “Know your enemy and know yourself.”

9. (transitive)To be able to distinguish, to discern, particularly by contrast or comparison; to recognize the nature of.

   “to know a person's face or figure”

   “to know right from wrong”

   “I wouldn't know one from the other.”

   “Ye ſhall knowe them by their frutes.”

   “The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.”

10. (transitive)To recognize as the same (as someone or something previously encountered) after an absence or change.

    “At nearer view he thought he knew the dead, / And call'd the wretched man to mind.”

    “Ernest also is so much improved, that you would hardly know him:[…].”

11. (intransitive)To have knowledge; to have information, be informed.

    “It is vital that he not know.”

    “She knew of our plan.”

    “He knows about 19th century politics.”

    ““My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.””

    “Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.”

12. (transitive)To be able to play or perform (a song or other piece of music).

    “Do you know "Blueberry Hill"?”

13. (transitive)To have indexed and have information about within one's database.

    “Mmm... Seems you searched for a name that we don't know, we'll send our trained monkeys to check what's in stock.”

14. (transitive)To maintain (a belief, a position) subject to a given philosophical definition of knowledge; to hold a justified true belief.

noun

1. (rare, uncountable)Knowledge; the state of knowing.

   “That on the view and know of theſe Contents, […] He ſhould the bearers put to […] death, […]”

2. (uncountable)Knowledge; the state of knowing. (Now confined to the fixed phrase in the know.)
3. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of knowe (“hill, knoll”).

   “Owing to increasing numbers and consequent want of room for nestage, the old birds drove away the younger ones, who took refuge in their present abode at Fox's Know, where they have been located about six years.”

particle

1. (Singlish)Used at the end of a sentence to draw attention to information one thinks the listener should keep in mind.

   “Make sure you water the plants, know…”

   “I was a naval diver know!”

   “Are you sure they’re gonna give you someting more kilat? I think ah, they put you here to hentak kaki, know!”

   “Ah Chye (Charlie Goh): Eh hello, this is my territory know? Ang Bock Huat (Tristan Goh): Your territory? You think Scorpion very strong is it?”