apprehension

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin apprehensio, apprehensionis, compare with French appréhension. See apprehend.

noun

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
2. (law) 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
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
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
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