Grok

2 definitions found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  grok /grok/, var. /grok/ 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."
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  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)