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apprehension

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: appréhension

English

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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apprehension (countable and uncountable, plural apprehensions)

  1. The taking of something.
    1. (rare) The physical act of seizing or taking hold of (something); seizing.
      Synonyms: grab, seizure
      Antonym: release
      • 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.
      Synonyms: capture, taking
      Antonym: release
      • 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; […]
      • 2026 February 17, Aaron Blake, “The many claims by Trump’s DHS that have fallen apart”, in CNN‎[1], archived from the original on 18 February 2026:
        After video emerged of an aggressive apprehension of a teenager in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, McLaughlin claimed it was old video and didn’t involve ICE. She called it “a video from a burglary arrest Chicago Police made over a year ago.”
  2. The awareness of something
    1. 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.
    2. Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea.
      Synonym: notion
      • 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.
    3. The faculty by which ideas are conceived or by which perceptions are grasped; understanding.
      Synonyms: awareness, consciousness, sense
      Antonym: inapprehension
      • 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.
    4. Anticipation, especially of unfavorable things such as dread or fear or the prospect of something unpleasant in the future.
      Synonyms: alarm, trepidation, see also: Thesaurus:apprehension
      Antonyms: calm, peace of mind
      • 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

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  • 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.

Derived terms

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English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰed- (0 c, 54 e)

Translations

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References

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