Apprehend vs Nick - What's the difference?

In transitive terms the difference between apprehend and nick

is that apprehend is to anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear while nick is to mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.

As verbs the difference between apprehend and nick

is that apprehend is to take or seize; to take hold of while nick is to make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.

As a noun nick is

a small cut in a surface.

As a proper noun Nick is

a diminutive of the male given name Nicholas.

apprehend

English

Verb

(en verb)

(archaic) To take or seize; to take hold of.

* (rfdate), .

We have two hands to apprehend it.

To take or seize (a person) by legal process; to arrest.

to apprehend a criminal .

To take hold of with the understanding, that is, to conceive in the mind; to become cognizant of; to understand; to recognize; to consider.

* (rfdate), .

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.

* (rfdate)

The eternal laws, such as the heroic age apprehended them.

To anticipate; especially, to anticipate with anxiety, dread, or fear; to fear.

* (rfdate) -- .

The opposition had more reason than the king to apprehend violence.

To think, believe, or be of opinion; to understand; to suppose.

To be apprehensive; to fear.

* (rfdate) .

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)

Derived terms

* apprehension * misapprehend

Synonyms

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

nick

English

(wikipedia nick)

Noun

(en noun)

A small cut in a surface.

# A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.

in the nick of time

#*, II.20:

Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke , and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.

#* Howell

to cut it off in the very nick

# (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.

Meanings connoting something small.

# (cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.

# (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.

# (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.

(archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.

* 1879 , Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (p.201)

*:imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks , river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.

a user's reserved nick on an IRC network

(UK, slang) In the expressions in bad nick'' and ''in good nick : condition.

The car I bought was cheap and in good nick .

* '>citation

(British, slang) A police station or prison.

He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.

He's just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

Derived terms

* in the nick of time

Verb

(en verb)

To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.

I nicked myself while I was shaving.

# To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).

# To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.

#* Prior

And thence proceed to nicking sashes.

#* Shakespeare

The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.

To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.

* Camden

Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.

# To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.

#* L'Estrange

The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.

# To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.

#* {{quote-book, year=1773

, author=Oliver Goldsmith , title=She Stoops to Conquer , text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}

# (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection

(obsolete) To nickname; to style.

* Ford

For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.

(slang) To steal.

Someone's nicked my bike!

(transitive, British, slang) To arrest.

The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.