apprehension

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin apprehensio, apprehensionis, compare with French appréhension. See apprehend.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /æp.ɹɪˈhɛn.ʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æp.ɹiˈhɛn.ʃən/

• Audio (UK)

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Noun

apprehension (countable and uncountable, plural apprehensions)

1. (rare) The physical act of seizing or taking hold of (something); seizing.
   • 2006, Phil Senter, "Comparison of Forelimb Function between Deinonychus and Babiraptor (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridea)", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 26, no. 4 (Dec.), p. 905:

     The wing would have been a severe obstruction to apprehension of an object on the ground.

2. (law) The act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest.
   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 37, in North and South:

     The warrant had been issued for his apprehension on the charge of rioting.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1853, →OCLC:

     When he told us that a large reward was offered by Sir Leicester Dedlock for the murderer's apprehension, I did not in my first consternation understand why; […]

3. Perception; the act of understanding using one's intellect without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment
   • 1815, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “On Life,”, in A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays, published 1840:

     We live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life.

4. Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea.
   • 1901, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 8, in Penelope's English Experiences:

     We think we get a kind of vague apprehension of what London means from the top of a 'bus better than anywhere else.

5. The faculty by which ideas are conceived or by which perceptions are grasped; understanding.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Hard Times:

     Strangers of limited information and dull apprehension were sometimes observed not to know what a Powler was.

6. Anticipation, especially of unfavorable things such as dread or fear or the prospect of something unpleasant in the future.
   • 1846, Herman Melville, chapter 32, in Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life:

     Every circumstance which evinced the savage nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the fearful apprehensions that consumed me.

Usage notes

• Apprehension springs from a sense of danger when somewhat remote, but approaching; alarm arises from danger when announced as near at hand. Apprehension is less agitated and more persistent; alarm is more agitated and transient.

Synonyms

• (anticipation of unfavorable things): alarm
• (act of grasping with the intellect): awareness, sense
• See also Thesaurus:apprehension

Antonyms

• inapprehension

Related terms

Translations

References

• “apprehension”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “apprehension”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.