deprehend

English

Etymology

From Latin deprehendere, deprehensum, from de- + prehendere (“to lay hold of, seize”). See prehensile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɛpɹəˈhɛnd/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

deprehend (third-person singular simple present deprehends, present participle deprehending, simple past and past participle deprehended)

1. To take unawares or by surprise; to catch or seize (a criminal etc.) in the act.
   • 1655, Jeremy Taylor, Unum Necessarium:

     The deprehended adulteress

2. To detect; to discover; to find out.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     The motions of the minute parts of bodies […] are to be deprehended by experience.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “deprehend”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Related terms

• deprehension

Anagrams

• prehended