apprehensive
Americanadjective
-
uneasy or fearful about something that might happen.
apprehensive for the safety of the mountain climbers.
-
quick to learn or understand.
-
perceptive; discerning (usually followed byof ).
adjective
Other Word Forms
- apprehensively adverb
- apprehensiveness noun
- nonapprehensive adjective
- overapprehensive adjective
- overapprehensively adverb
- overapprehensiveness noun
- pseudoapprehensive adjective
- pseudoapprehensively adverb
- unapprehensive adjective
- unapprehensively adverb
- unapprehensiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of apprehensive
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Medieval Latin word apprehēnsīvus. See apprehensible, -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The minutes, released Wednesday with a customary three-week lag, revealed that more officials were less worried about the labor market than they had been and more apprehensive about inflation.
The team is disassembling at a rate fans are apprehensive about.
From BBC
"I think people were a little bit apprehensive - what's the catch? But actually the queue gets longer each week, as word spreads that this is for everybody," she said.
From BBC
“Without central banks as structural dip buyers as in gold, we are still a bit apprehensive of a potentially deeper shakeout in silver vis-à-vis gold in the near-term,” they wrote.
From Barron's
"I was told that I had to go and not risk losing my finger, so I was apprehensive."
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
