apprehend

t. & i. [In Fr. appréhendre & apprendre; Sp. aprehender; Port, apprehender, aprender; Ital. apprendere to learn, to conceive; Lat. apprehendo (1) to seize, (2) to allege, (3) to comprehend: ad = to, and prehendo to take hold of, to seize. This is from Lat. præ before, and the same root which appears in A.S. hent an, gehentan = to take hold of, to pursue.] IMG:content-0652.png:[blocks in formation] II. Of mental action : To seize, grasp, or lay hold of an idea or a conception; to entertain an emotion. 1. Of mental conceptions: (a) To interpret, to understand but somewhat doubtfully. "What was spoken metaphorically may be apprehended literally. What was spoken ludicrously may be apprehended seriously."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., chap. v. (b) To believe, to be of opinion. to do what they conscientiously apprehended to be wrong?"-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., chap. xi. 2. Of emotion: To dread the approach of some evil; to look forward with anxiety to a coming event. "Here, therefore, the opposition had more reason than the king to to apprehend a violence." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., chap. ii. In this sense it is sometimes used im personally. "It was apprehended that, if he were now armed with the whole power of the Crown, he would exact a terrible retribution for what he had suffered."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , chap. xiii. B. Intransitive : 1. Partially to understand. 2. To think, conceive, entertain an opinion. (Generally followed by that .) (1.) Apprehend in the sense cla ed above as II., 1 ( a ) is a much weaker word than comprehend. Every one apprehends much which he does not comprehend. (2.) When apprehend is used in the sense cla ed as No. II., 1 (b), it may be contrasted with the verbs to conceive, to suppose , and to imagine. According to Crabb, to apprehend is simply to take an idea into the mind, as children do; to conceive an idea is to form it after reflection, as is done by adults. To apprehend and to conceive are applied only to reality, whilst to suppose and imagine are used of things which may exist only in the imagination. Apprehend expre es the weakest kind of belief: a man is said to conceive that on which he forms a direct opinion; what one supposes may admit of a doubt, what one imagines may be altogether improbable or impo ible, and that which cannot be imagined may be too improbable to be believed. (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) (3.) When apprehend is used in the sense cla ed as No. 11., 2, it may be contrasted with the verbs to fear and to dread. These rise above each other in force after the manner of a climax in the order apprchend, fear, dread. We apprehend an unpleasant occurrence; we fear a misfortune; we dread a calamity. Moreover, apprehend respects things only; fear and dread relate to persons as well as things. (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) (4.) More ( Sleep of the Soul, ii. 28) uses the forın apprend , probably metri gratia.