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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
apprehend
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Agents at the Interstate 8 station apprehended more than 3,100 undocumented workers.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After several days however, with nobody apprehended, the papers indulged in a little poetic licence.
▪ But agents say that the longer the immigrants are on foot, the greater the chance of them being apprehended.
▪ I would have a certain amount to lose in terms of reputation were I to be apprehended.
▪ Not that the organs of perception apprehended it at the time.
▪ Talk of molecules does not undermine the reality of consciously apprehended beauty and meaning.
▪ The two men were later apprehended after they robbed another store.
▪ William Swain lived out the tensions that Jody only dimly apprehends.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Apprehend

Apprehend \Ap`pre*hend"\, v. i.

  1. To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.

  2. To be apprehensive; to fear.

    It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.
    --Rowe.

Apprehend

Apprehend \Ap`pre*hend"\ ([a^]p`pr[-e]*h[e^]nd"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Apprehended; p. pr. & vb. n. Apprehending.] [L. apprehendere; ad + prehendere to lay hold of, seize; prae before + -hendere (used only in comp.); akin to Gr. chanda`nein to hold, contain, and E. get: cf. F. appr['e]hender. See Prehensile, Get.]

  1. To take or seize; to take hold of. [Archaic]

    We have two hands to apprehend it.
    --Jer. Taylor.

  2. Hence: To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest; as, to apprehend a criminal.

  3. To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.

    This suspicion of Earl Reimund, though at first but a buzz, soon got a sting in the king's head, and he violently apprehended it.
    --Fuller.

    The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.
    --Gladstone.

  4. To know or learn with certainty. [Obs.]

    G. You are too much distrustful of my truth. E. Then you must give me leave to apprehend The means and manner how.
    --Beau. & Fl.

  5. To anticipate; esp., to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.

    The opposition had more reason than the king to apprehend violence.
    --Macaulay.

    Syn: To catch; seize; arrest; detain; capture; conceive; understand; imagine; believe; fear; dread.

    Usage: To Apprehend, Comprehend. These words come into comparison as describing acts of the mind. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent. We may apprehended many truths which we do not comprehend. The very idea of God supposes that he may be apprehended, though not comprehended, by rational beings. ``We may apprehended much of Shakespeare's aim and intention in the character of Hamlet or King Lear; but few will claim that they have comprehended all that is embraced in these characters.''
    --Trench.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
apprehend

mid-14c., "to grasp in the senses or mind," from Old French aprendre (12c.) "teach; learn; take, grasp; acquire," or directly from Latin apprehendere "to take hold of, grasp," from ad- "to" + prehendere "to seize" (see prehensile). Metaphoric extension to "seize with the mind" took place in Latin, and was the sole sense of cognate Old French aprendre (Modern French apprendre "to learn, to be informed about;" also compare apprentice). Original sense returned in English in meaning "to seize in the name of the law, arrest," recorded from 1540s, which use probably was taken directly from Latin. Related: Apprehended; apprehending.

Wiktionary
apprehend

vb. 1 (context transitive archaic English) To take or seize; to take hold of. 2 (context transitive English) To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest. 3 (context transitive English) To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider. 4 (context transitive English) To anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear. 5 (context intransitive English) To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose. 6 (context intransitive English) To be apprehensive; to fear.

WordNet
apprehend
  1. v. get the meaning of something; "Do you comprehend the meaning of this letter?" [syn: get the picture, comprehend, savvy, dig, grasp, compass]

  2. take into custody; "the police nabbed the suspected criminals" [syn: collar, nail, arrest, pick up, nab, cop]

  3. anticipate with dread or anxiety [syn: quail at]

Usage examples of "apprehend".

Instead of attempting to secure the allegiance of his son by the generous ties of confidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefs which might be apprehended from dissatisfied ambition.

Negro, was apprehended in Tennessee on a Friday on a warrant alleging no more than a theft of a pistol, and taken to South Carolina on a Sunday.

Petitions having been presented by the cities of Bristol and New-Sarum, alleging, that since the laws prohibiting the making of low wines and spirits from grain, meal, and flour, had been in force, the commonalty appeared more sober, healthy, and industrious: representing the ill consequences which they apprehended would attend the repeal of these laws, and therefore praying their continuance.

This political side of his apostolate needs to be clearly apprehended if we would understand its amazing success and the wholly unique character of the Franciscan movement in its beginning.

In addition, because it is an object of perception for one of them, that which is a common object for all three of them, though differently apprehended, must be an entity which also has physical existence on the bedroom wall.

On the face of it, it is impossible to hold that ideas are the only objects that we do directly apprehend and yet are also representations of realities that are never objects that we directly apprehend, for one can be said to represent the other only if both can be directly apprehended and compared.

We are conscious only of the objects apprehended, not of the ideas by which we apprehend them.

Just as two or more persons can talk to one another about a perceptual object or a remembered event that is commonly apprehended by them, so two or more persons can talk about liberty or justice as common objects of thought, or about triangularity and circularity, or about the difference between tree and shrub as distinct kinds of vegetation.

Nevertheless, he was correct in thinking that our voluntary imposition of a meaningless notation upon an object apprehended is the way in which at least some words must acquire their meaning.

It is in this way that we communicate with one another about objects that are public in the sense that they are objects apprehended by and so are common to two or more individuals.

The reason for this is that the words which name the apprehended objects of conceptual thought are always common names.

Hence we can use words to refer to apprehended objects about the existence of which we suspend judgment or ask questions.

Some object is apprehended, be it a perceptual object, an object of memory or imagination, or an object of conceptual thought.

Here the dinner bell interrupted a conversation which had wrought such an effect on Sophia, that she was, perhaps, more obliged to her bleeding in the morning, than she, at the time, had apprehended she should be.

The difficulty therefore which he apprehended there might be in corrupting this young wench, and the danger which would accrue to his character on the discovery, were such strong dissuasives, that it is probable he at first intended to have contented himself with the pleasing ideas which the sight of beauty furnishes us with.