Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Apprehensive
1.
Capable of apprehending, or quick to do so; apt; discerning.
It may be pardonable to imagine that a friend, a kind and
apprehensive
. . . friend, is listening to our talk. Hawthorne.
2.
Knowing; conscious; cognizant.
[R.]
A man that has spent his younger years in vanity and folly, and is, by the grace of God,
apprehensive
of it. Jer. Taylor.
3.
Relating to the faculty of apprehension.
Judgment . . . is implied in every
apprehensive
act. Sir W. Hamilton.
4.
Anticipative of something unfavorable’ fearful of what may be coming; in dread of possible harm; in expectation of evil.
Not at all
apprehensive
of evils as a distance. Tillotson.
Reformers . . .
apprehensive
for their lives. Gladstone.
5.
Sensible; feeling; perceptive.
[R.]
Thoughts, my tormentors, armed with deadly stings,
Mangle my
Mangle my
apprehensive
, tenderest parts. Milton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Apprehensive
APPREHEN'SIVE
,Adj.
1.
Quick to understand; as, an apprehensive scholar.2.
Fearful; in expectation of evil; as, we were apprehensive of fatal consequences. [This is the usual sense of the word.]
3.
Suspicious; inclined to believe; as, I am apprehensive he does not understand me.4.
Sensible; feeling; perceptive. [Rarely used.]