apprehend

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To take into custody; arrest: apprehended the murderer.
2. v. To grasp mentally; understand: a candidate who apprehends the significance of geopolitical issues.
3. v. To become conscious of, as through the emotions or senses; perceive.
4. v. To understand something.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. . To lay hold of; seize upon; take possession of.
2. To take into custody; make prisoner; arrest by legal warrant or authority.
3. To take into the mind; seize or grasp mentally; take cognizance of. To perceive; learn by the senses.
4. To imagine, especially an object of desire or dread; form a concrete conception of: frequently opposed to comprehend or attend.
5. To understand; take an intelligent view of.
6. To anticipate; expect; especially, to entertain suspicion or fear of.
7. To hold in opinion; be of opinion concerning. See extract.
8. Synonyms To catch, arrest, capture.
9. Apprehend, Comprehend; to conceive, perceive, see, know. “We apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend. The great mystery, for instance, of the Holy Trinity—we lay hold upon it (ad prehendo), we hang upon it, our souls live by it; but we do not take it all in, we do not comprehend it. It belongs to the idea of God that he may be apprehended though not comprehended by his reasonable creatures; he has made them to know him, though not to know him all, to apprehend though not to comprehend him.” Trench.
10. To fear, dread, anticipate (with fear).
11. To imagine; form a concrete conception of anything; have intellectual perception; catch the idea or meaning.
12. To believe or be of opinion, but without positive certainty: used as a modest way of introducing an opinion: as, all this is true, but we apprehend it is not to the purpose.
13. To be apprehensive; be in fear of a future evil.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive, archaic To take or seize; to take hold of.
2. v. transitive To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.
3. v. transitive To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.
4. v. transitive To anticipate; esp., to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.
5. v. intransitive To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.
6. v. intransitive To be apprehensive; to fear.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. Archaic To take or seize; to take hold of.
2. v. Hence: To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.
3. v. To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.
4. v. obsolete To know or learn with certainty.
5. v. To anticipate; esp., to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.
6. v. To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.
7. v. To be apprehensive; to fear.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. anticipate with dread or anxiety
2. v. get the meaning of something
3. v. take into custody