The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural apprehensions
(rare) The physical act of seizing or taking hold of (something); seizing. quotations
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
(law) The act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest. quotations examples
The warrant had been issued for his apprehension on the charge of rioting.
1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 37, in North and South
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; […]
1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853
Perception; the act of understanding using one's intellect without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment quotations examples
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, published 1840
Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea. quotations examples
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, chapter 8, in Penelope's English Experiences
The faculty by which ideas are conceived or by which perceptions are grasped; understanding. quotations examples
Strangers of limited information and dull apprehension were sometimes observed not to know what a Powler was.
1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Hard Times
Anticipation, especially of unfavorable things such as dread or fear or the prospect of something unpleasant in the future. quotations examples
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, chapter 32, in Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life