Dictionary Definition
apprehension
Noun
1 fearful expectation or anticipation; "the
student looked around the examination room with apprehension" [syn:
apprehensiveness,
dread]
2 the cognitive condition of someone who
understands; "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and
effect" [syn: understanding, discernment, savvy]
3 painful expectation [syn: misgiving]
4 the act of apprehending (especially
apprehending a criminal); "the policeman on the beat got credit for
the collar" [syn: arrest,
catch, collar, pinch, taking
into custody]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- WEAE: /æ.pɹiˈhɛn.ʃən/
Noun
- The physical
act of seizing or taking hold of;
seizure.
- 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.
- 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 act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest.
- 1855, Elizabeth
Gaskell, North and South, ch. 37,
- The warrant had been issued for his apprehension on the charge of rioting.
- 1855, Elizabeth
Gaskell, North and South, ch. 37,
- The act of grasping
with the intellect;
the contemplation
of things, without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment; intellection; perception.
- 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.
- 1815, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, "On Life," in A Defence of Poetry and Other
Essays (1840 edition),
- Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea.
- 1901, Kate
Douglas Wiggin, Penelope's English Experiences, ch. 8,
- We think we get a kind of vague apprehension of what London means from the top of a 'bus better than anywhere else.
- 1901, Kate
Douglas Wiggin, Penelope's English Experiences, ch. 8,
- The faculty by which
ideas are conceived; understanding.
- 1854, Charles
Dickens, Hard Times, ch. 7,
- Strangers of limited information and dull apprehension were sometimes observed not to know what a Powler was.
- 1854, Charles
Dickens, Hard Times, ch. 7,
- Anticipation,
mostly of things unfavorable; dread or fear at the prospect of some future
ill.
- 1846, Herman
Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, ch. 32,
- Every circumstance which evinced the savage nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the fearful apprehensions that consumed me.
- 1846, Herman
Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, ch. 32,
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
alarmTranslations
seizure
- Dutch: grijpen,
arrest
- Dutch: arrestatie, grijpen, vastgrijpen
- Finnish: pidättäminen, vangitseminen
act of grasping with the intellect
- Dutch: begrip, begrijpen
opinion
- Dutch: begrip, opinie, gezichtspunt, visie
faculty by which ideas are conceived
- Dutch: begrip, verstand
distrust or fear at the prospect of future evil
- Dutch: vrees, angst
- Finnish: huoli, pelko
References
- Webster 1828}}
Extensive Definition
Apprehension can refer to:
- apprehension (understanding), awareness or understanding of something by the mind.
- apprehension (fear), a fearful emotion.
- arrest, the detention of a criminal by law-enforcement officers.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
IQ,
Pyrrhonism, abduction, agitation, alarm, all-overs, angst, anxiety, anxiety hysteria,
anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern, anxious seat,
anxiousness,
apprehensiveness,
arrest, arrestation, arrestment, boding, bust, caliber, cankerworm of care,
capacity, capture, care, catch, catching, clairvoyance,
cliff-hanging, collaring, command, comprehension, conceit, concept, conception, conceptualization,
concern, concernment, coup, deductive power, detention, diffidence, disquiet, disquietude, distress, distrust, distrustfulness,
disturbance,
doubt, doubtfulness, dragnet, dread, dubiety, dubiousness, esemplastic
power, expectant waiting, faith, fancy, fear, forcible seizure, foreboding, forebodingness, foreknowledge, grab, grabbing, grasp, grip, half-belief, hold, idea, ideation, image, imago, impression, inquietude, integrative
power, intellect,
intellection,
intellectual grasp, intellectual object, intellectual power,
intellectualism,
intellectuality,
intelligence,
intelligence quotient, kidnapping, knowledge, leeriness, malaise, mastery, memory-trace, mental
age, mental capacity, mental grasp, mental image, mental
impression, mental ratio, mentality, misdoubt, misgiving, mistrust, mistrustfulness, mother
wit, nab, nabbing, native wit, nervous
strain, nervous tension, nervousness, netting, notion, observation, opinion, overanxiety, panic, perception, perturbation, pessimism, picking up,
pickup, pinch, pins and needles, possession, power grab, power
of mind, precognition, prehension, premonition, prenotion, presage, presentiment, pucker, qualm, qualmishness, question, rationality, reasoning
power, recept, reflection, reliance, representation, running
in, sanity, savvy, scope of mind, scruple, scrupulousness, seizure, seizure of power,
self-doubt, sense,
sentiment, shadow of
doubt, skepticalness, skepticism, snatch, snatching, solicitude, stew, strain, supposition, suspense, suspicion, suspiciousness, taking
in, taking into custody, tension, theory, thinking power, thought, total skepticism,
trouble, trust, uncertainty, understanding, unease, uneasiness, unquietness, upset, vexation, waiting, wariness, wisdom, wit, worry, zeal