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apprehend
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

apprehend as in:  apprehend the situation

She doesn't yet apprehend the seriousness of the charge against her.
apprehend = understand
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • It defines intelligence as "the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action toward a desired goal."
  • How will the first truly intelligent machine apprehend the world?
  • Can you apprehend these outside forces?  (source)
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Show 10 more with 10 word variations
  • These gentlemen are here to assist me in apprehending you and escorting you to your new place of employment.†  (source)
    apprehending = understanding
  • We are in the first place to apprehend that there is a time fixed and stated by God for the Devil to enjoy a dominion over our sinful and therefore woful world.  (source)
    apprehend = understand
  • Volkheimer switches off the light, and Werner apprehends something excruciating held at bay there in the darkness.†  (source)
    apprehends = understands
  • The next incident of reality Toohey apprehended was his own hand dropping down on the typewriter keys: he heard the metal cough of the levers tangling and striking together, and the small jump of the carriage.  (source)
    apprehended = understood
  • Even death, Alessandro thought, would yield to beauty-if not in fact then in explanation-for the likeness of every great question could be found in forms as simple as songs, and there, if not explicable, they were at least perfectly apprehensible.  (source)
    apprehensible = understandable
  • "Are these spirits, Master, that I hear?" said I. And he to me, "Thou apprehendest truly; and they go loosening the knot of anger."†  (source)
    apprehendest = understand
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-est" is dropped, so that where they said "Thou apprehendest" in older English, today we say "You apprehend."
  • Thou doest as he doth who a thing by name Well apprehendeth, but its quiddity Cannot perceive, unless another show it.†  (source)
    apprehendeth = understands
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-eth" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She apprehendeth" in older English, today we say "She apprehends."
  • —yes, not even growing and developing, beloved by and loving light, but equipped only with that cunning, that inverted canker-growth of solitude which substitutes the omnivorous and unrational hearing-sense for all the others: so that instead of accomplishing the processional and measured milestones of the normal childhood's time I lurked, unapprehended as though, shod with the very damp and velvet silence of the womb, I displaced no air, gave off no betraying sound, from one closed forbidden door to the next and so acquired all I knew of that light and space in which people moved and breathed as I (that same child) might have gained conception of the sun from seeing it through a piece of s†  (source)
    unapprehended = not understood
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unapprehended means not and reverses the meaning of apprehended. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • Their stillness is the reason why these memories of former times do not awaken desire so much as sorrow—a vast, inapprehensible melancholy.  (source)
    inapprehensible = not capable of being understood
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inapprehensible means not and reverses the meaning of apprehensible. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • I know that the leisurely tricks which their want of conviction leaves them free to play with the diluted and misapprehended message supply them with a pleasant parlor game which they call style.†  (source)
    misapprehended = wrongly understood
    standard prefix: The prefix "mis-" in misapprehended means wrong and reverses the meaning of apprehended. This is the same pattern you see in words like misunderstand, misbehave, and misuse.
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apprehend as in:  apprehend the criminal

Police are determined to apprehend the murderer.
apprehend = catch and arrest
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • They apprehended the suspect late last night.
    apprehended = caught and arrested
  • You'd say that was all Liesel Meminger needed to apprehend her second stolen book, even if it smoked in her hands.  (source)
    apprehend = get (take possession of)
  • The culprit is far too cunning to be apprehended for this dastardly deed.  (source)
    apprehended = captured or arrested
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • The headline reads: "Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended!"  (source)
    Apprehended = caught
  • Is he determined to strand me outside District 12 until he can apprehend and arrest me?  (source)
    apprehend = catch
  • Solomon, my top priority is apprehending the man at Franklin Square, and you will sit here with one of my men until I accomplish that task.  (source)
    apprehending = catching and arresting
  • Considering we've got nothing better to work with, I intend to tell Chief Deacon that the Mother Paula's vandal has been apprehended.  (source)
    apprehended = caught
  • We failed to apprehend the target, and I have every reason to believe he's about to carry out his threat.  (source)
    apprehend = catch
  • One day he came up to the office, all in a hurry, and had a private interview with the magistrate, who, after a deal of talk, rings the bell, and orders Jem Spyers in (Jem was a active officer), and tells him to go and assist Mr. Chickweed in apprehending the man as robbed his house.  (source)
    apprehending = catching and arresting
  • Why had they apprehended Tate?  (source)
    apprehended = taken into custody
  • This morning they had not expected to locate and apprehend him.  (source)
    apprehend = arrest
  • Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey.  (source)
    Apprehended = caught
  • I apprehend that man, and call upon him to surrender, and you to assist.  (source)
    apprehend = catch and arrest
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apprehend as in:  apprehend misfortune

It can be worse to apprehend than to suffer.
apprehend = fear, or anticipate with worry
editor's notes: Today, this meaning of apprehend is commonly seen in the forms apprehensive or apprehension, but it is also seen in this form in classic literature.
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  • I hope it is better than we apprehend.
    apprehend = fear
  • The wills thrust westward ahead of them, and fears that had once apprehended drought or flood now lingered with anything that might stop the westward crawling.  (source)
    apprehended = worried about
  • Is the danger you apprehended last night gone by now, sir?  (source)
    apprehended = feared
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • Besides, had not the deputy, who had been so kind to him, told him that provided he did not pronounce the dreaded name of Noirtier, he had nothing to apprehend?  (source)
    apprehend = fear
    editor's notes: Today, this meaning of apprehend is commonly seen in the forms apprehensive or apprehension, but it is also seen in this form in classic literature.
  • We shall greatly miss Edmund in our small circle, but I trust and hope he will find the poor invalid in a less alarming state than might be apprehended, and that he will be able to bring him to Mansfield shortly,  (source)
    apprehended = feared
  • I trembled violently, apprehending some dreadful misfortune.  (source)
    apprehending = fearing
  • A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless, of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality and desperately mortal.  (source)
    apprehends = fears
  • At the sight of this slaughter and devastation I became terrified, not for myself—for I, a simple Corsican fisherman, had nothing to fear; on the contrary, that time was most favorable for us smugglers—but for my brother, a soldier of the empire, returning from the army of the Loire, with his uniform and his epaulets, there was everything to apprehend.  (source)
    apprehend = fear
  • This taunt brought such an expression into the face of Nicholas, that Arthur Gride plainly apprehended it to be the forerunner of his putting his threat of throwing him into the street in immediate execution; for he thrust his head out of the window, and holding tight on with both hands, raised a pretty brisk alarm.  (source)
    apprehended = feared
  • True, the planks were not so closely adjusted but that a hasty peep might be obtained through their interstices; but the strict decorum and rigid propriety of the inhabitants of the house left no grounds for apprehending that advantage would be taken of that circumstance.  (source)
    apprehending = worrying
  • Mr. Brownlow, seeming to apprehend that his singular friend was about to say something disagreeable, asked Oliver to step downstairs and tell Mrs. Bedwin they were ready for tea; which, as he did not half like the visitor's manner, he was very happy to do.  (source)
    apprehend = fear
  • …and, though Kitty might in time regain her natural degree of sense, since the disturbers of her brain were removed, her other sister, from whose disposition greater evil might be apprehended, was likely to be hardened in all her folly and assurance by a situation of such double danger as a watering-place and a camp.  (source)
    apprehended = feared
  • Seriously apprehending that his malady would increase, unless we put some innocent deception upon him and caused him to believe that he was useful, or unless we could put him in the way of being really useful (which would be better), I made up my mind to try if Traddles could help us.  (source)
    apprehending = fearing
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