[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. Aptness to apprehend; intelligence, perceptiveness, discernment.
a. 1639. Reliq. Wotton., 81. We shall often mark in it [the eye] a dulness, or apprehensiveness, even before the understanding.
1702. S. P[arker], Tully’s De Fin., 144. The Winged World make frequent Discoveries of their Apprehensiveness and Memory.
1805. Wordsw., Prel., VIII. (1851), 190. Yet knowledge came … In fits of kindliest apprehensiveness, From all sides.
2. The habit of anticipating things adverse; fearfulness as to what may be coming.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), IV. 243. So much apprehensiveness that her fears are aforehand with her dangers.
1860. A. L. Windsor, Ethica, vii. 399. Burke had in reality all that nervous anxiety and that exaggerated apprehensiveness, which Chatham assumed.
