Also 7 -or. [f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who lays hold of or seizes; esp. one who seizes or arrests in the name of justice.
1608. Chapman, Byron’s Trag., IV. i. Plays, 1873, II. 282.
| This short sword onely; which if I haue time | |
| To show my apprehendor, he shall vie | |
| Power of tenne Lions if I get not loose. |
1684. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), II. 65. How would the … number of malefactors be greater than that of apprehenders?
2. One who lays hold with the senses or mental faculties.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 84. All these proceed from the indisposition and distempred taste of the apprehendor.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 639. Truth is bigger than our minds, and we are … rather apprehenders than comprehenders thereof.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 177. By ‘beholder’ is meant knower, or apprehender.
