deprehension

English

Etymology

From Latin deprehensio. See deprehend.

Noun

deprehension (countable and uncountable, plural deprehensions)

1. (obsolete) A catching in the act; discovery.
   • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volumes (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

     The act of adultery was her crime : to be taken in the very act , was no part of her sin , but the proof of her just conviction ; yet her deprehension is made an aggravation of her shame.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “deprehension”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)