"start to fathom" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is usually used to mean "begin to understand" or "try to comprehend". For example, "I started to fathom the complexities of quantum physics when I took an advanced course on the topic."
The Shanghai Squeeze and Singapore Grip are both probably self-explanatory, but think "matchstick" and "cigar", and men, at least, might start to fathom her hold over Edward.
And I had to explore in three ways – by water, land and air – to even start to fathom its magnitude and magnificence.
"The risk now is that a portion of those safe-haven flows that took place through 2010 and 2011, and were associated with fears about a breakup of the single currency, start to unwind," Fathom says.
Southampton's loss of hustle after their flying start was difficult to fathom and, when they lost their defensive bearings shortly after the second-half restart, they found themselves behind.
If, for Mets fans, watching Pérez pitch that well after four inconsistent starts seemed difficult to fathom, it may be harder to believe what their team did.
In his most extensive public comments since NSF's oversight body decided in December to walk away from the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) project, Chu told a congressional spending panel yesterday that the decision was especially hard to fathom "since [NSF] started it".
The Scotland manager and his squad arrived in Belgrade still unable to fathom outtheir woeful start to Friday night's 2-1 defeat by Wales at Hampden Park – a result that kept them rooted to the bottom of Group A with two points from five games.
They are already 15 points adrift of leaders Chelsea and this result was hard for their fans to fathom, given how well they started and how shaky the United defence had appeared.
It's hard to fathom in retrospect that Winnick was able to start Global Crossing as an undersea cable builder in 1997 and take it public a year later.
In other words, the reason more people haven't started businesses today is because the process seems too complicated to fathom.
It's tough to fathom whether Hartzell at some point cracked and started believing his own lie or played trickster to the end.
