verb. (once literary; now American colloquial.—To feel; to take in; to understand.
1651. CARTWRIGHT, Poems [NARES].
| ’Twas writ, not to be understood, but read, | |
| He that expounds it must come from the dead; | |
| Get———undertake to SENSE it true, | |
| For he can tell more than himself e’er knew. |
1665. GLANVILL, Scepsis Scientifica, xxvi. Is he sure, that objects are not otherwise SENSED by others, then they are by him?
1885. G. S. MERRIAM, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, I. 101. He … got at the plans of the leaders, the temper of the crowd, SENSED the whole situation.
