Choose the Right Synonym for apprehensive

fearful, apprehensive, afraid mean disturbed by fear. fearful implies often a timorous or worrying temperament. the child is fearful of loud noises apprehensive suggests a state of mind and implies a premonition of evil or danger. apprehensive of being found out afraid often suggests weakness or cowardice and regularly implies inhibition of action or utterance. afraid to speak the truth

How has the meaning of apprehensive changed over time?

When Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar “And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,” he was not using the word apprehensive with the meaning which we so often encounter today (“viewing the future with anxiety or alarm”). The Bard was using the word’s older meaning of “capable of understanding or quick to do so” or “showing insight and understanding.” Apprehensive has shifted its meaning considerably in the seven hundred or so years it has been inhabiting our language. Its earliest meanings had to do with apprehension, to be sure, but it was apprehension meaning “the act of learning,” (a sense that is now obsolete) or “the act or faculty or grasping with the intellect.” The words apprehensive and apprehension both have roots in the Latin words prehendere meaning “to seize.”

Examples of apprehensive in a Sentence

When the Crossroads Rhode Island social services agency switched to a 401(k) retirement plan from a pension last year, it added a feature that made some employees apprehensive. To ensure that as many employees as possible saved for retirement, the Providence nonprofit chose to automatically enroll all its workers into the 401(k) plan and deduct a minimum of 4 percent from their paychecks. — Andrew Caffrey, Boston Sunday Globe, 2 Oct. 2005 … Sargent, a shrewder character, was apprehensive about how the portrait would be viewed by the conventional crowds for whom a day out at the Salon was a social fixture in the Paris calendar. He was right. The public saw nothing lovely in this pallid, long- nosed woman with her prominent chin and superior smile. — Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review, 28 Sept. 2003 I arrived at my first Lamaze class the same way I showed up for my baby showers and ob-gyn appointments: a little excited, a little apprehensive, but mostly obediently, because it's what you're supposed to do when you're pregnant. — Paula Spencer, Parenting, April 1997 I'm fully apprehensive of the options, I assure you.

Recent Examples on the Web Jason Rosenbaum, a longtime friend of Hepner’s, is vaccinated but was apprehensive about getting a booster and taking his 5-year-old daughter in for her first vaccination. — Steve Lopez Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2022 At Clyde & Co, an international law firm, the wristband strategy provided a measure of relief for team members who were apprehensive about the interpersonal complexities of in-person work. — New York Times, 4 Jan. 2022 The women didn’t grasp that in some communities of color, older generations can be apprehensive about autism and tend to think issues come down to behavior and discipline. — Astrid Galvan, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Nov. 2021 Of course, companies may be apprehensive about joining forces with another organization, especially one in the same industry. — Kate Farmer Rojas, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2021 While city staff believed the plan’s zoning aspects were in alignment with the current zoning code, some of the Plan Commission members appeared apprehensive, particularly regarding the building size and parking. — Daniel I. Dorfman, chicagotribune.com, 4 Dec. 2021 Whether apprehensive or excited about their new phase of adolescence, all of the boys are keenly attuned to the process of transformation. — Martina Carlstedt, The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2021 At first, Michelle and I were apprehensive to try it. — Raj Tawney, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Dec. 2021 That kind of defensive versatility should make Bishop Alemany a little apprehensive. — Eric Sondheimer Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'apprehensive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.