different between contain vs apprehend

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French contenir, from Latin continere (“to hold or keep together, comprise, contain”), combined form of con- (“together”) + tene? (“to hold”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n-t?n?, IPA^(key): /k?n?te?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Hyphenation: con?tain

Verb

contain (third-person singular simple present contains, present participle containing, simple past and past participle contained)

1. (transitive) To hold inside.
2. (transitive) To include as a part.
3. (transitive) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

   • [The king's] only Person is oftentimes instead of an Army, to contain the unruly People from a thousand evil Occasions.
4. (mathematics, of a set etc., transitive) To have as an element or subset.

5. (obsolete, intransitive) To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

   • But if they cannot contain, let them marry.

Synonyms

• (hold inside): enclose, inhold
• (include as part): comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold
• (limit by restraint): control, curb, repress, restrain, restrict, stifle; See also Thesaurus:curb

Antonyms

• (include as part): exclude, omit
• (limit by restraint): release, vent

Usage notes

• This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

Related terms

• container
• containable
• containment
• content
• continence

Translations

Further reading

• contain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• contain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• contain at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• actinon, cantion

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French apprehender (compare modern French appréhender), from Latin apprehendere. Compare Spanish aprehender.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æ.p?i?h?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

apprehend (third-person singular simple present apprehends, present participle apprehending, simple past and past participle apprehended)

1. (transitive, archaic) To take or seize; to take hold of.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, Of Contentedness

     We have two hands to apprehend it.

   1. (transitive, law enforcement) To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.

2. (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.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre

     This suspicion of Earl Reimund, though at first but a buzz, soon got a sting in the king's head, and he violently apprehended it.

   • 1858, William Ewart Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age

     The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.
3. (transitive) To anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.
4. (intransitive) To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.
5. (intransitive) To be apprehensive; to fear.
   • c. 1700, Nicholas Rowe (translator), Characters: Or, the Manners of the Age (originally by Jean de La Bruyère)

     It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.

Usage notes

To apprehend, comprehend. These words come into comparison as describing acts of the mind. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent. We may apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend. The very idea of God supposes that He may be apprehended, though not comprehended, by rational beings. We may apprehend much of Shakespeare's aim and intention in the character of Hamlet or King Lear; but few will claim that they have comprehended all that is embraced in these characters. --Trench.
(material dates from 1913)

Synonyms

• catch, seize, arrest, detain, capture, conceive, understand, imagine, believe, fear, dread

Derived terms

• apprehension
• misapprehend

Translations