grok

3 definitions found

grok - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  grok
      v 1: get the meaning of something; "Do you comprehend the
           meaning of this letter?" [syn: grok, get the picture,
           comprehend, savvy, dig, grasp, compass,
           apprehend]

grok - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  grok
  
     /grok/, /grohk/ (From the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land",
     by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning
     literally "to drink" and metaphorically "to be one with")
  
     1. To understand, usually in a global sense.  Connotes
     intimate and exhaustive knowledge.
  
     Contrast zen, which is similar supernal understanding
     experienced as a single brief flash.  See also glark.
  
     2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient
     understanding.  "Almost all C compilers grok the "void" type
     these days."
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1995-01-31)
  

grok - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  grok
   /grok/, /grohk/, vt.
  
     [common; from the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A.
     Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally `to drink' and
     metaphorically `to be one with'] The emphatic form is grok in
     fullness.
  
     1. To understand. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. When
  you
     claim to `grok' some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that
     you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but
  that
     it has become part of you, part of your identity. For example, to say
     that you "know" LISP is simply to assert that you can code in it if
     necessary -- but to say you "grok" LISP is to claim that you have
     deeply entered the world-view and spirit of the language, with the
     implication that it has transformed your view of programming.
  Contrast
     zen, which is similar supernal understanding experienced as a
  single
     brief flash. See also glark.
  
     2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient understanding.
     "Almost all C compilers grok the void type these days."