get wise vs cotton on

get wise and cotton on both are verbs.

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

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

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

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

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