Search the Dictionary

Figuratively: To have intellectual apprehension; to perceive; to know; to understand; to discern; -- often followed by a preposition, as through, or into. For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. John ix. 39. Many sagacious persons will find…

to be; to have a show or semblance; to present an appearance; to look; to strike one's apprehension or fancy as being; to be taken as. "It now seemed probable." Macaulay. Thou picture of what thou seem'st. Shak. All seemed well pleased; all seemed, but were not all. Milton. There is a way which seemeth right unto a ma…

Apprehension; judgment. [Obs.] Chaucer. Nothing more clear unto their seeming. Hooker. His persuasive words, impregned With reason, to her seeming. Milton.

Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation. This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover. Sir P. Sidney. High disdain from sense of injured merit. Milton.

Hence, giving rise to apprehension; attended with danger; as, a serious injury.

Dull of apprehension; not possessing quick intelligence.

To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise. The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us. Locke.

subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive. Things remote from use, obscure and subtle. Milton.

being suspended; specifically, a state of uncertainty and expectation, with anxiety or apprehension; indetermination; indecision; as, the suspense of a person waiting for the verdict of a jury. Ten days the prophet in suspense remained. Denham. Upon the ticklish balance of suspense. Cowper.

The act of suspecting; the imagination or apprehension of the existence of something (esp. something wrong or hurtful) without proof, or upon very slight evidence, or upon no evidence. Suspicions among thoughts are like bats among birds, they ever fly by twilight. Bacon.

The act of gaining possession; a seizing; seizure; apprehension.

from the head or cephalic region of invertebrate animals, being either an organ of sense, prehension, or motion. Tentacle sheath (Zoöl.), a sheathlike structure around the base of the tentacles of many mollusks.

To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn. Let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Acts iv. 17.

Extent; limit; degree of comprehension; inclusion as far as; as, they met us to the number of three hundred. We ready are to try our fortunes To the last man. Shak. Few of the Esquimaux can count to ten. Quant. Rev.

es in the walls of the mouth or pharynx of most vertebrates, and which usually aid in the prehension and mastication of food.

act of one who understands a thing, in any sense of the verb; knowledge; discernment; comprehension; interpretation; explanation.

In an understanding manner; intelligibly; with full knowledge or comprehension; intelligently; as, to vote upon a question understandingly; to act or judge understandingly. The gospel may be neglected, but in can not be understandingly disbelieved. J. Hawes.

Understanding; apprehension. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

Mode of looking at anything; manner of apprehension; conception; opinion; judgment; as, to state one's views of the policy which ought to be pursued. To give a right view of this mistaken part of liberty. Locke.

events in, and of the purpose of, the world as a whole, forming a philosophical view or apprehension of the universe; the general idea embodied in a cosmology.