apprehend

apprehend — verb

1. If police or another authority apprehends a person, they find that person and ta

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

If police or another authority apprehends a person, they find that person and take them into legal custody, usually because the person is suspected of breaking the law.

Example

Two officers apprehended the suspect outside a small petrol station near Hsinchu.

subject is law-enforcement: officers apprehended + [suspect]

The robber was apprehended at the airport before he could board his flight to Manila.

passive: be apprehended at/before + [location/event]

Common collocations
  • apprehend a suspect
  • apprehend a fugitive
  • apprehend the offender
  • be apprehended at the scene
  • apprehend without resistance
Synonyms
  • arrest

    more common and slightly less formal; 'apprehend' often implies the catching as well as the arrest

  • detain

    to hold someone temporarily, often without formal charges; 'apprehend' implies actually catching them first

  • capture

    stresses the act of seizing, often used for fugitives or escaped prisoners

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

apprehend + [person]

be apprehended by + [authority]

Usage Note

Subject is almost always a law-enforcement body (police, customs, federal agents) and the object is a person suspected of wrongdoing. Frequently appears in the passive (be apprehended). More formal than 'catch' or 'arrest', and typical in news reporting and legal documents.

Common Mistakes

The teacher apprehended the noisy children.
The teacher caught the noisy children.
'apprehend' here implies legal arrest by authority; for a teacher catching kids, use 'catch'.
The dog apprehended the thief in the garden.
The dog cornered the thief in the garden until officers arrived.
only people with legal authority can apprehend someone.

2. to take in the meaning or significance of something, especially an abstract idea

2.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to take in the meaning or significance of something, especially an abstract idea or a situation, so that you can see clearly what it involves — for example, finally seeing why a poem is sad, or grasping the size of a problem.

Example

Students rarely apprehend the full beauty of the poem on a first reading.

object is an abstract noun: apprehend + [the beauty/meaning/significance]

Only later did Mei apprehend how serious her grandfather's illness really was.

apprehend + wh-clause (how/why/what)

Common collocations
  • apprehend the meaning
  • apprehend the significance
  • apprehend the scale
  • fail to apprehend
  • fully apprehend
Synonyms
  • grasp

    very close in meaning but neutral in register; works in everyday speech

  • comprehend

    also formal; emphasises full mental processing rather than sudden insight

  • perceive

    stresses becoming aware through the senses or intuition, not just intellectual understanding

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

apprehend + [idea/situation]

apprehend that + clause

apprehend how/why/what + clause

Usage Note

Object is typically an abstract concept (meaning, significance, scale, beauty) or a clause introduced by 'how', 'why', 'what', or 'that'. Distinguish from sense 1 (ARREST): this sense never takes a person as object. Mostly used in academic, philosophical, or literary writing — in everyday speech, native speakers say 'understand' or 'grasp'.

Common Mistakes

I apprehend you.
I understand you.
'apprehend' is too formal for ordinary conversation and sounds odd with a person as object in this sense.
She apprehended the new software in one afternoon.
She mastered the new software in one afternoon.
'apprehend' is for grasping meaning, not for learning a practical skill.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four verbs describe taking a person into legal custody, but they differ in scope and tone. 'Arrest' is the everyday legal term: officers stop someone, state the charge, and take them in. 'Apprehend' is more formal and slightly broader — it covers both the chase and the arrest, and is favoured by news writers and police statements ('the suspect was apprehended near the border'). 'Detain' is the weakest of the four: it only means holding someone temporarily, often for questioning, without necessarily charging them ('passengers were detained at customs for two hours'). 'Capture' stresses the physical act of seizing someone who has been resisting or fleeing, especially fugitives, escaped prisoners, or enemy soldiers ('the escaped convict was finally captured in the woods').

apprehend ↗arrest ↗detain ↗capture ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • apprehend a suspect
  • be apprehended at the scene
  • fail to apprehend the meaning
  • fully apprehend the situation

Prepositions

  • apprehended at [location]
  • apprehended by [authority]
  • apprehended for [crime]
  • apprehended in [place]

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishModern English

Apprehend comes from the Latin verb 'apprehendere', meaning 'to take hold of' or 'to seize', built from 'ad-' (toward) plus 'prehendere' (to grasp). It entered English in the late 14th century through Old French 'aprehender'. The original sense — physically grabbing someone or something — survives in the legal meaning of arresting a suspect. The mental meaning (grasping an idea) developed in parallel: just as your hands take hold of an object, your mind 'takes hold of' a meaning. The related noun 'apprehension' kept a third strand — anxious anticipation — though that sense is rarer for the verb today.