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APPREHENSIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In fear or dread of possible evil or harm
Example:
apprehensive of danger
Classified under:
Similar:
afraid (filled with fear or apprehension)
Derivation:
apprehend (anticipate with dread or anxiety)
apprehensiveness (fearful expectation or anticipation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc
Example:
felt apprehensive about the consequences
Synonyms:
apprehensive; worried
Classified under:
Similar:
uneasy (lacking a sense of security or affording no ease or reassurance)
Derivation:
apprehend (anticipate with dread or anxiety)
apprehensiveness (fearful expectation or anticipation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Quick to understand
Example:
a kind and apprehensive friend
Synonyms:
apprehensive; discerning
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)
Derivation:
apprehend (get the meaning of something)
Context examples:
She had previously, in the anticipation of their marriage, been very apprehensive of losing her friend by it; but on being assured that he could have made no attempt of that nature, since he did not even know her to be in Bath, it immediately occurred, that something might be done in her favour by the influence of the woman he loved, and she had been hastily preparing to interest Anne's feelings, as far as the observances due to Mr Elliot's character would allow, when Anne's refutation of the supposed engagement changed the face of everything; and while it took from her the new-formed hope of succeeding in the object of her first anxiety, left her at least the comfort of telling the whole story her own way.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Are you apprehensive of the new sphere you are about to enter? —of the new life into which you are passing?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I got upon the desk immediately, apprehensive of at least a great dog underneath.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
From time to time they stole glances at Wolf Larsen, and I could see that they were apprehensive of the man.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Yes; and every delay makes one more apprehensive of other delays.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Sir Thomas felt as an anxious father must feel, and was indeed experiencing much of the agitation which his wife had been apprehensive of for herself, but had fortunately escaped.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I know very well that Colonel Brandon is not old enough to make his friends yet apprehensive of losing him in the course of nature.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He was surrounded by the unknown, apprehensive of what might happen, ignorant of what he should do, aware that he walked and bore himself awkwardly, fearful that every attribute and power of him was similarly afflicted.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
In that sense I do feel apprehensive—I have no wish to talk nonsense.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The proposition I originally submitted, was twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four; but I am apprehensive that such an arrangement might not allow sufficient time for the requisite amount of—Something—to turn up.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
