ˌ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ˈhenchən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English apprehensioun, from Late Latin apprehension-, apprehensio, from Latin apprehensus (past participle of apprehendere ) + -ion-, -io -ion
1.
a. obsolete : the act of learning
b. : the faculty of grasping with the intellect : understanding
a man of dull apprehension
c. : the act of grasping with the intellect : intellection , perception
d.
(1) : the result of apprehending mentally : opinion , conception
according to popular apprehension
(2) : notion , sentiment , idea
to mistrust one's own apprehensions
e. philosophy : the act of mentally grasping or of bringing before the mind ; specifically : a perception that is comparatively simple, direct, and immediate and has as its object something considered to be directly and nondiscursively understandable ; broadly : an intellectual awareness : a relatively simple or unreflective idea, opinion, or belief
f. in traditional logic : that one of the three operations of thought by which one grasps what is expressed by a term or name — contrasted with judgment and reasoning
g. psychology : the observing of an object as a whole without distinguishing its parts
2. : the taking by legal, especially criminal, process : arrest
apprehension of a felon
3. : anticipation especially of unfavorable things : suspicion or fear especially of future evil
Synonyms:
foreboding , misgiving , presentiment : apprehension may refer to a fear, sometimes vague, that obsesses and keeps one anxious about the future
peasants who have survived a famine will be perpetually haunted by memory and apprehension — Bertrand Russell
daily apprehension lest the wholesome sons and daughters whom they commit to a college return to them as brazen fools without culture — W.L.Sullivan
foreboding applies to oppressive anticipatory fear, often ill-grounded, ill-defined, or superstitious
my wife was curiously silent throughout the drive and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil — H.G.Wells
there was a sadness and constraint about all persons that day, which filled Mr. Esmond with gloomy forebodings — W.M.Thackeray
misgiving applies to sudden uneasy fear and worried doubt rather than due anxiety or dread
a misgiving arose within him that such dread experiences would revive the old danger — Charles Dickens
his self-confidence had given place to a misgiving that he had been making a fool of himself — G.B.Shaw
presentiment indicates a shadowy, almost mystical, intuitive perception of some coming event, often unpleasant and fearful
this unfortunate accident has upset me. I have a horrible presentiment that something of the kind may happen to me — Oscar Wilde