Ap-pre-hĕn'sion, n.
n. [Lat. apprehensio, Fr. appréhension. See supra.]
Sense 1. (Lat.) The act of seizing or taking hold of; as, the hand is an organ of apprehension. Hence,
Sense 2. The act of arresting or taking by legal process; as, the felon, after his apprehension, escaped.
Sense 3. The mere contemplation of things, without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment; the operation of the mind in contemplating ideas, without comparing them with others, or referring them to external objects. “Simple apprehension denotes no more than the soul’s naked intellection of an object.” Glanville.
Sense 4. Opinion; conception; sentiment; idea.
In this sense, the word often denotes a belief, founded on sufficient evidence to give preponderation to the mind, but insufficient to induce certainty; as, in our apprehension, the facts prove the issue.
To be false, and to be thought false, is all one in respect of men, who act not according to truth, but apprehension. South.
Sense 5. The faculty by which ideas are conceived; as, a man of dull apprehension.
Sense 6. Distrust or fear at the prospect of future evil, accompanied with uneasiness of mind.
After the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was in no small apprehension for his own life. Addison.
Synonyms— APPREHENSION, ALARM. Apprehension springs from a sense of danger when somewhat remote, but approaching; alarm arises from danger when announced as near at hand. Apprehension is calmer and more permanent; alarm is more agitating and transient. Apprehension may be felt by a single individual when alone; alarm is ordinarily social, spreading by contagion among all around.
And he the future evil shall no less In apprehension than in substance feel. Milton.
Taught by this stroke renounce the war’s alarms, And learn to tremble at the name of arms. Pope.