Definition

1. Verb (transitive or intransitive):
   • To successfully make contact or communicate with someone: To reach someone, especially by telephone or other means of communication.
   • To successfully pass or endure a difficult period, experience, or task: To manage to complete or survive something challenging.
   • To be understood or to finally be comprehended: For a message, idea, or feeling to be successfully received and understood by someone.
   • To use up or pass a period of time: To spend time, often while waiting or enduring something.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:
  • I tried calling all morning, but I couldn't get through to the office. (I couldn't make contact.)
  • It was a tough winter, but we got through it together. (We survived the difficult period.)
  • He explained it three times before the message finally got through. (The idea was finally understood.)
  • We got through the long train journey by playing cards. (We passed the time.)

Advanced Usage

• "to get through to someone": To succeed in making someone understand something, especially when it is difficult.
  • As a teacher, you must find a way to get through to every student.
• "to get something through (something)": To successfully have something (like a proposal or law) approved by an official process or group.
  • The minister worked hard to get the new policy through parliament.

Variants and Related Words

• Throughput (n): The amount of material or items passing through a system or process.
  • The factory increased its throughput by 20%.
• Get-through (adj, informal): Denoting something that helps one endure a difficult time.
  • A get-through the day playlist.

Synonyms

• Survive: To continue to live or exist despite danger or hardship.
• Complete: To finish making or doing.
• Reach: To make contact with.
• Penetrate: To succeed in understanding or becoming aware of.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Get by: To manage to live or survive, usually with minimal resources.
  • They have just enough money to get by.
• Get over: To recover from an illness or an unpleasant experience.
  • It took her months to get over the flu.

Related Idioms

• Get through one's head: To finally understand or accept something (often used when someone is being slow to understand).
  • He needs to get it through his head that this is a serious matter.
• Get through the day: To manage to cope with the day's demands, often when feeling unwell or unhappy.
  • After the bad news, I just had to focus on getting through the day.

Verb

1. become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions
   • It dawned on him that she had betrayed him
   • she was penetrated with sorrow
2. be in or establish communication with
   • Our advertisements reach millions
   • He never contacted his children after he emigrated to Australia
3. succeed in reaching a real or abstract destination after overcoming problems
   • We finally got through the bureaucracy and could talk to the Minister
4. spend or pass, as with boredom or in a pleasant manner; of time
5. finish a task completely
   • I finally got through this homework assignment