apprehension

Noun

apprehension (countable and uncountable, plural apprehensions)

1. (rare) The 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. The 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
   • 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

   Synonyms:

   capture, taking

   Antonyms:

   release

3. Perception; 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
4. Opinion; 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

5. The 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

6. Anticipation, 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