Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic English) To realize; come to understand.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Cotton On is an Australian retail chain, known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. It has almost 1200 stores in 12 countries and employs 17,000 staff in Australia and internationally.
Cotton On also operates Cotton On Body, Cotton On Kids, Rubi Shoes, Typo, T-bar and Factorie and owns Supré.
Usage examples of "cotton on".
He was going to plow a patch to raise some cotton on, if he never did anything else as long as he lived.
I sneaked to the edge of the road, then scampered across it and fell into the depths of the Jeter cotton on the other side.
Shortly after his miraculous survival, the owners of the cotton on board the Lexington presented Second Mate Crowley with the same bale that had carried him to land.
Carefully they spread the damp cotton on boards or rocks in the sunshine, turning and shaking it frequently till it was perfectly dry, and fit to be repacked in bales for market.
Knobbly white cotton on the deep, sinfully comfortable sofas and chairs, white lamps and shades.
Boykin was at home at the time to look after his own interests, and he, with John de Saussure, has saved the cotton on their estates, with the mules and farming utensils and plenty of cotton as capital to begin on again.
He was still irritated about the idea of growing green cotton on the Star.
Who's just been shot over a card game or killed in a duel over some drunken insult, who shot his overseer caught sleeping with his wife, the price of cotton on the docks at Beaufort, prices at a horse auction, a slave auction and whose slaves have run off like you've set up John Israel right there in your prologue?