apprehend

American  

[ap-ri-hend] / ˌæp rɪˈhɛnd /

verb (used with object)

• apprehends,
  present (3rd person singular)
• apprehended,
  past participle,  past
• apprehending
  present participle

1. to take into custody; arrest by legal warrant or authority.

   The police apprehended the burglars.

2. to grasp the meaning of; understand, especially intuitively; perceive.

3. to expect with anxiety, suspicion, or fear; anticipate.

   apprehending violence.

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verb (used without object)

• apprehends,
  present (3rd person singular)
• apprehended,
  past participle,  past
• apprehending
  present participle

1. to understand.

2. to be apprehensive, suspicious, or fearful; fear.

apprehend British  

/ ˌæprɪˈhɛnd /

verb

1. (tr) to arrest and escort into custody; seize

2. to perceive or grasp mentally; understand

3. (tr) to await with fear or anxiety; dread

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• apprehender
  noun
• reapprehend
  verb
• unapprehended
  adjective
• unapprehending
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• apprehending
  present
• apprehended
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• apprehend
  simple
• apprehends
  simple
• have apprehended
  perfect
• has apprehended
  perfect
• am apprehending
  progressive
• are apprehending
  progressive
• is apprehending
  progressive
• have been apprehending
  perfect progressive
• has been apprehending
  perfect progressive

Past

• apprehended
  simple
• had apprehended
  perfect
• was apprehending
  progressive
• were apprehending
  progressive
• had been apprehending
  perfect progressive

Future

• will apprehend
  simple
• will have apprehended
  perfect
• will be apprehending
  progressive
• will have been apprehending
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of apprehend

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English apprehenden, from Latin apprehendere “to grasp,” from ap- ap- ¹ + prehendere “to seize” (from pre-, prae- pre- + -hendere “to grasp”)

Explanation

To apprehend is to capture or arrest, as when the police try to apprehend criminals and bring them to justice. You also apprehend a concept when you understand it, grasping or capturing its meaning. The verb apprehend has remained much the same since the original Latin, both in form and meaning. It comes from apprehendere, "to grasp or seize." The word came to refer to learning — "grasping or seizing with the mind" — but then came to mean "seize in the name of the law" or "arrest" around the 1540s, a meaning that remains to this day. The word can also be used to suggest an anxious feeling about something about to happen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

apprehend apprehends apprehended apprehending

Another resident described the moment he said he saw police apprehend the suspects.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Judge Wright said she would allow for more time to apprehend Muhamadi, with a view to sentencing him at a later date.

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026

"Every effort is being made to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the attack," the spokesman said.

From Barron's ● May 23, 2026

In January, Yemen’s Interior Ministry re-upped a request to its Emirati counterpart to apprehend Al-Maqtari and his associates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026

“We have his picture, description, measurements and fingerprints in the event we have cause to apprehend him,” he informed headquarters.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Porzak, a gifted photographer, apprehends the world visually, but to reach her mother as she slipped in and out of a coma, she used sound.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

The Border Patrol apprehends migrants who cross the border unlawfully.

From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2020

The Border Patrol apprehends people entering the U.S. illegally, both directly at the U.S.-Mexico border and with its series of highway checkpoints miles from the border.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 23, 2019

CBP is the agency that apprehends and first detains migrant parents and children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 25, 2019

Volkheimer switches off the light, and Werner apprehends something excruciating held at bay there in the darkness.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

And in a batch of cases announced this week, the department published 11 photos of lawful permanent residents being apprehended.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The arrests are the second time in a matter of weeks that men have been apprehended wandering near or in a U.K. military base in the middle of the night.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

McGuire was apprehended as he was trying to access a red Ford Mustang car parked outside the building.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

On Wednesday, in a local Sydney court, prosecutors withdrew the charges after it was agreed that Ahmed would abide by an apprehended domestic violence order for 12 months, limiting his contact with his father.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

Soon I began to lose my fear of being apprehended.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

It is not the first time Latin American officers have used fancy dress while apprehending suspected criminals.

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026

“If the U.S. government is unilaterally going into a sovereign country and apprehending somebody, you can understand the concern that sovereign entity might have,” Colombo told reporters outside the courthouse on Tuesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026

We must all reexamine our beliefs in a critical and dispassionate spirit to determine whether we are apprehending reality or clinging to mental fetishes.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

“I want to thank our detectives and officers for their outstanding work in swiftly identifying and apprehending the suspect.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2025

I took these techniques, these ways of seeing and feeling, and twisted them, bent them, adapted them, until they became my ways of apprehending the locked-in life of the Black Belt areas.

From "Native Son" by Richard Wright

Related Words

• bust
• capture
• seize