APPREHENSIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does apprehensive mean? 

• APPREHENSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective APPREHENSIVE has 3 senses:

1. quick to understand

2. mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc

3. in fear or dread of possible evil or harm

  Familiarity information: APPREHENSIVE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APPREHENSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Quick to understand

Synonyms:

apprehensive; discerning

Context example:

a kind and apprehensive friend

Similar:

perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)

Derivation:

apprehend (get the meaning of something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc

Synonyms:

apprehensive; worried

Context example:

felt apprehensive about the consequences

Similar:

uneasy (lacking a sense of security or affording no ease or reassurance)

Derivation:

apprehend (anticipate with dread or anxiety)

apprehensiveness (fearful expectation or anticipation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

In fear or dread of possible evil or harm

Context example:

apprehensive of danger

Similar:

afraid (filled with fear or apprehension)

Derivation:

apprehend (anticipate with dread or anxiety)

apprehensiveness (fearful expectation or anticipation)

 Context examples 

I felt apprehensive that I was personally interested in this dialogue, and sought Mr. Murdstone's eye as it lighted on mine.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was worried and apprehensive, yet the camp lured his mate and she was loath to depart.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The disquietude of his air, the somewhat apprehensive impatience of his manner, surprised me: but I proceeded.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The natives came, by degrees, to be less apprehensive of any danger from me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

All the while I had been apprehensive concerning my own predicament.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They were apprehensive for his lungs.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She was soon convinced that it was not for herself she was feeling at all apprehensive or embarrassed; it was for him.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

With apprehensive caution therefore it was revealed, and he was listened to with unexpected calmness.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Apprehensive of trouble, she had stuffed the few dollars she possessed into her hand-satchel; and so sure was she that disaster had overtaken her brother, that she stumbled forward, sobbing, into his arms, at the same time thrusting the satchel mutely at him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There was a something in her countenance which made him listen with an apprehensive and anxious attention, while she added: When I said that he improved on acquaintance, I did not mean that his mind or his manners were in a state of improvement, but that, from knowing him better, his disposition was better understood.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)