apprehension

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

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

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.

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 (1840 edition):

     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, mostly of things unfavorable; dread or fear at the prospect of some future ill.
   • 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.

• 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.

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

• inapprehension

• apprehension at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.