Cotton to It
I didn’t even realize that cotton was a verb. From The American Heritage Dictionary:
To come to understand. Often used with to or onto: “The German bosses . . . never cottoned to such changes” (N.R. Kleinfield).
The context in which I came across this is a joke, since it is the title of an article about an experiment involving political T-shirts:
T-Shirt Diversity? Bush Won’t Cotton to It.
• The question: Which presidential campaign better tolerates dissent?
The experiment: A college professor wears a Kerry-Edwards shirt to a rally for President Bush, then a Bush for President shirt to a John Kerry rally.
Result: Bush people make the subject remove his shirt, then give him the boot. The Kerry people don’t make a peep.
Read the whole account (scroll down for story).
Try the experiment yourself: Buy a Kerry T-shirt!
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Comments
Surprising how long-standing it is. In UK English, though, I’ve never heard it in any form but “cotton on to” (= “become aware of”).
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An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
I don’t think verb “not Cotton to It” is to understand, rather i think what this verb mean is to dislike.
quick refference about the “not cotton to it” in web search resulting bellow explanation.
To take a liking; attempt to be friendly: a dog that didn’t cotton to strangers; an administration that will cotton up to the most repressive of regimes.
and most text i encounter are using negative sence.