Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Apprehension

Ap′pre·hen′sion (ăp′prē·hĕn′shŭn), n. [L. apprehensio: cf. F. appréhension. See Apprehend.] 1. The act of seizing or taking hold of; seizure; as, the hand is an organ of apprehension. Sir T. Browne.

2. The act of seizing or taking by legal process; arrest; as, the felon, after his apprehension, escaped.

3. The act of grasping with the intellect; the contemplation of things, without affirming, denying, or passing any judgment; intellection; perception.

Simple apprehension denotes no more than the soul's naked intellection of an object. Glanvill.

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 false, and to be thought false, is all one in respect of men, who act not according to truth, but apprehension. South.

5. The faculty by which ideas are conceived; understanding; as, a man of dull apprehension.

6. Anticipation, mostly of things unfavorable; distrust or fear at the prospect of future evil.

After the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was in no small apprehension for his own life. Addison.

Syn. — 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.