Apprehension \Ap`pre*hen"sion\, n. [L. apprehensio: cf. F.
appr['e]hension. See Apprehend.]
1. The act of seizing or taking hold of; seizure; as, the
hand is an organ of apprehension. --Sir T. Browne.
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2. The act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest; as,
the felon, after his apprehension, escaped.
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3. The act of grasping with the intellect; the contemplation
of things, without affirming, denying, or passing any
judgment; intellection; perception.
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Simple apprehension denotes no more than the soul's
naked intellection of an object. --Glanvill.
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4. Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea.
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Note: In this sense, the word often denotes a belief, founded
on sufficient evidence to give preponderation to the
mind, but insufficient to induce certainty; as, in our
apprehension, the facts prove the issue.
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To false, and to be thought false, is all one in
respect of men, who act not according to truth,
but apprehension. --South.
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5. The faculty by which ideas are conceived; understanding;
as, a man of dull apprehension.
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6. Anticipation, mostly of things unfavorable; distrust or
fear at the prospect of future evil.
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After the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was
in no small apprehension for his own life.
--Addison.
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Syn: Apprehension, Alarm.
Usage: Apprehension springs from a sense of danger when
somewhat remote, but approaching; alarm arises from
danger when announced as near at hand. Apprehension is
calmer and more permanent; alarm is more agitating and
transient.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
apprehension
n 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]
WordNet (r) 2.0
186 Moby Thesaurus words for "apprehension":
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
APPREHENSION, practice. The capture or arrest of a person. The term
apprehension is applied to criminal cases, and arrest to civil cases; as,
one having authority may arrest on civil process, and apprehend on a
criminal warrant.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
apprehensiveness, arrest, catch, collar, discernment, dread, misgiving, pinch, savvy, taking into custody, understanding
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