Apprehensive | Definition of apprehensive by Merriam-Webster

Full Definition of APPREHENSIVE

1

: capable of understanding or quick to do so : discerning

2

: having awareness or knowledge of something : cognizant

3

: viewing the future with anxiety or alarm

— ap·pre·hen·sive·ly adverb

— ap·pre·hen·sive·ness noun

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Examples of APPREHENSIVE

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
When it was a relatively new technology, many people eschewed air travel for fear of a crash. Even now, when aviation relies on a well-established technology, many adults who do not think twice about the risks of driving an automobile are apprehensive about flying. —Henry Petroski, To Engineer Is Human, 1992
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Origin of APPREHENSIVE

(see apprehension)

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to APPREHENSIVE

Synonyms: alive, conscious, aware, cognizant, mindful, sensible, sentient, ware, witting

Antonyms: insensible, oblivious, unaware, unconscious, unmindful, unwitting

Synonym Discussion of 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>.