cotton on vs get wise

cotton on and get wise both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
cotton on	No	No	Yes	No
get wise	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, cotton on and get wise are synonyms defined as:

cotton on and get wise: understand, usually after some initial difficulty

Other synonyms of cotton on include catch on, get it, get onto, latch on, tumble, twig.

cotton on (verb)	get wise (verb)
understand, usually after some initial difficulty	understand, usually after some initial difficulty