v. [a. Fr. appréhende-r (15th c. in Godef.), ad. L. app-, adprehend-ĕre to lay hold of, seize, f. ad to + prehend-ĕre to seize. In the contracted form apprend-ĕre, the word survived in the Romance langs. in the fig. sense ‘lay hold with the mind, comprehend, learn,’ whence also later ‘teach, inform’: cf. Fr. apprendre, and Eng. APPRISE. Subsequently, the full apprehend-ĕre was taken into Fr. and Eng. in its orig. form and sense. APPREND is occas. in 16–17th c.]
I. Physical.
† 1. To lay hold upon, seize, with hands, teeth, etc. Also said of fire, and fig. of trembling, fear, etc. Obs. or arch.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, III. 5. A great quakyng and tremblyng dyd apprehende hys hande.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 124. His dogs … apprehending the garments of passengers.
1613. Life William I., in Harl. Misc. (1793), 28. A fire began … which apprehending certain shops and warehouses, [etc.].
c. 1643. Maximes Unf., 8. Fury and affrightment apprehend the desperate.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 63. A lame hand that cannot apprehend.
1843. E. Jones, Sensat. & Event, 122. While those two lips his brow did apprehend.
† b. transf. To seize upon, take down, in writing. fig. To seize upon (points of a subject). Obs.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 480. I apprehended it [an epitaph] with my pen while the Preacher was in his pulpit.
1615. T. Adams, Spir. Navig., 24. I will only apprehend so much as may serve to exemplify this dangerous world.
2. To seize (a person) in name of law, to arrest.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John vii. 1 (R.). To fynde sum occasion … to attache and apprehende him.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 44. Paul … going like a Pursivant … to Damascus, to apprehend the Saints there.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 287. A justice of the peace cannot issue a warrant to apprehend a felon upon bare suspicion.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 328. Troops had been sent to apprehend him.
† 3. To seize upon for one’s own, take possession of. Also fig. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. vii. 70. Ellis quhare … to wend, Thayre dwelling place for ay to apprehend.
1611. Bible, Phil. iii. 12. If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus.
1652. Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 21. That Vacancies are his who apprehend’s them first by occupation.
† 4. To seize or embrace (an offer or opportunity).
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., 750. If we apprehend not that great grace and mercy of the Father offered to all.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 126. If he apprehend not an opportunity to escape.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, 56. His faith, whereby he did firmely apprehend the … aid of his eternal Father.
II. Mental.
† 5. gen. To learn, gain practical acquaintance with. Also absol. (The earliest use in Eng.; cf. Fr. apprendre.) Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. ii. (1495), 28. He holdeth in mynde … without foryetynge, all that he apprehendyth.
1531. Elyot, Governour (1834), 215. Thereby they provoke many men to apprehend virtue.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 204. Children … Improve their nat’ral Talents without Care, And apprehend, before they are aware.
6. To become or be conscious by the senses of (any external impression).
1635. Austin, Medit., 60. When this Light shone in darkenesse, and our darkenesse, though it apprehended, yet it comprehended it not.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxiv. 212. That caused Agar supernaturally to apprehend a voice from heaven.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., III. i. § 37. If I see … two candle flames, I apprehend them as different objects.
† 7. To feel emotionally, be sensible of, feel the force of. Obs.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, 29 b. The … soules of them that haue no power to apprehend such felicitie.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. i. Dead. Lord! how deeply, sir, you apprehend it.
1670. Walton, Lives. That [kindness] was so gratefully apprehended by M. Hooker.
8. To lay hold of with the intellect: a. to perceive the existence of, recognize, see.
1577. Vautroullier, Luther’s Ep. Gal., 5. Who so doth not understand or apprehend this righteousness in afflictions and terrors of conscience.
1609. C. Butler’s Fem. Mon., Ad Auth. 16. There is not half that worth in Mee Which I have apprehended in a Bee.
1743. J. Morris, Serm., vii. 184. We shall apprehend reason to conclude, that … they were not so very young.
1872. Browning, Fifine, lxxi. 7. Each man … avails him of what worth He apprehends in you.
b. to catch the meaning or idea of; to understand.
1631. Heywood, Lond. Jus Hon., 279. As soone known as showne, and apprehended as read.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sc., I. xiii. 87. This is all so plain, that I can’t but apprehend it.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 463. The nature of the long contest between the Stuarts and their parliaments, was indeed very imperfectly apprehended by foreign statesmen.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., II. 24. To apprehend distinctly the signification of a number, two things are necessary.
c. absol. or with subord. cl.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 84. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos., 46/1. Periander … immediately apprehended that he advised him to put the most eminent in the City to death.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 532, ¶ 2. I cannot apprehend where lyes the trifling in all this.
1785. Reid, Intell. Powers, i. i. No one can explain by a Logical Definition what it is to think, to apprehend.
9. To understand (a thing to be so and so); to conceive, consider, view, take (it) as.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, IV. ix. (1840), 193. They apprehended it a great courtesy done unto them.
1736. Wesley, Wks., 1830, I. 100. I apprehended myself to be near death.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, III. 393. The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.
b. absol. or with subord. cl.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, I. iv. 8. If hee apprehend you flout him once, he will flie at you.
1775. J. Lyon, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 101. I apprehend that secrecy is as necessary now as ever it was.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., IV. vi. § 17. In general, I apprehend, the later French critics have given the preference to Racine.
10. To anticipate, look forward to, expect (mostly things adverse)
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 149. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully, but as a drunken sleepe.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones (1836), I. III. iii. 100. A triumphant question, to which he had apprehended no answer.
1879. Tourgee, Fool’s Errand, ii. 11. Love had taught her with unerring accuracy to apprehend the evil which impended.
11. To anticipate with fear or dread; to be fearful concerning; to fear. a. with obj.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. ii. 80. Oh let my Lady apprehend no feare.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 54. Which makes me much apprehend the ends of those honest Worthies.
1702. Eng. Theophr., 53. He apprehends every breath of air as much as if it were a Hurricane.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Hill & Valley, xiii. 125. No one … could think … that any further violence was to be apprehended.
b. with subord. cl. To be apprehensive, to fear.
1740–61. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), III. 210. I don’t apprehend that even the Bath could hurt her.
1868. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 186. I sometimes apprehend that our institutions may perish.
