Library / English Dictionary

APPREHEND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get the meaning of something

Example:

Do you comprehend the meaning of this letter?

Synonyms:

apprehend; compass; comprehend; dig; get the picture; grasp; grok; savvy

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "apprehend" is one way to...):

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "apprehend"):

figure (understand)

catch on; cotton on; get it; get onto; get wise; latch on; tumble; twig (understand, usually after some initial difficulty)

intuit (know or grasp by intuition or feeling)

digest (arrange and integrate in the mind)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

apprehender (a person who knows or apprehends)

apprehensible (capable of being apprehended or understood)

apprehension (the cognitive condition of someone who understands)

apprehensive (quick to understand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Take into custody

Example:

the police nabbed the suspected criminals

Synonyms:

apprehend; arrest; collar; cop; nab; nail; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "apprehend" is one way to...):

clutch; prehend; seize (take hold of; grab)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

apprehender (a person who seizes or arrests (especially a person who seizes or arrests in the name of justice))

apprehension (the act of apprehending (especially apprehending a criminal))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Anticipate with dread or anxiety

Synonyms:

apprehend; quail at

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "apprehend" is one way to...):

anticipate; look for; look to (be excited or anxious about)

"Apprehend" entails doing...:

dread; fear (be afraid or scared of; be frightened of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

apprehender (a person who knows or apprehends)

apprehension (painful expectation)

apprehension (fearful expectation or anticipation)

apprehensive (in fear or dread of possible evil or harm)

apprehensive (mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Donavan says there is nothing materially to be apprehended; her constitution is a good one, and her resolution equal to any thing.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“Ma'am,” returned Mr. Chillip, “I apprehended you had known. It's a boy.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Later on, when he had travelled more and grown older and wiser and come to know more of trails and rivers, it might be that he could grasp and apprehend such a possibility.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I trembled violently, apprehending some dreadful misfortune.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But here it was with the utmost difficulty that I brought him to apprehend what I meant.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Dinner-parties and evening-parties were made for him and his lady; and invitations flowed in so fast that she had soon the pleasure of apprehending they were never to have a disengaged day.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. R. knows a decline is apprehended; he saw her this morning: she returns to Wimpole Street to-day; the old lady is come.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Their parties abroad were less varied than before, and at home she had a mother and sister whose constant repinings at the dullness of everything around them threw a real gloom over their domestic circle; and, though Kitty might in time regain her natural degree of sense, since the disturbers of her brain were removed, her other sister, from whose disposition greater evil might be apprehended, was likely to be hardened in all her folly and assurance by a situation of such double danger as a watering-place and a camp.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The neglect had been visited on the head of the sinner; for when poor Lady Elliot died herself, no letter of condolence was received at Kellynch, and, consequently, there was but too much reason to apprehend that the Dalrymples considered the relationship as closed.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)