apprehension

plural apprehensions

1. The taking of something.
   1. countablerareuncountableThe physical act of seizing or taking hold of (something); seizing.

      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

      Synonyms: grab, seizure · Antonyms: release

   2. countableuncountablelawThe act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest.

      The warrant had been issued for his apprehension on the charge of rioting.

      1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 37, in North and South

      2 more examples

      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, →OCLC

      After video emerged of an aggressive apprehension of a teenager in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, McLaughlin claimed it was old video and didn’t involve ICE. She called it “a video from a burglary arrest Chicago Police made over a year ago.”

      2026 February 17, Aaron Blake, “The many claims by Trump’s DHS that have fallen apart”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Feb 2026

      Synonyms: capture, taking · Antonyms: release

2. The awareness of something
   1. countableuncountablePerception; the act of understanding using one's intellect without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment

      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

   2. countableuncountableOpinion; conception; sentiment; idea.

      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

      Synonyms: notion

   3. countableuncountableThe faculty by which ideas are conceived or by which perceptions are grasped; understanding.

      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

      Synonyms: awareness, consciousness, sense · Antonyms: inapprehension

   4. countableuncountableAnticipation, especially of unfavorable things such as dread or fear or the prospect of something unpleasant in the future.

      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

      Synonyms: alarm, trepidation · Antonyms: calm, peace of mind