† deprehend, v. Obs.
(dɛprɪˈhɛnd)
[ad. L. dēprehend-ĕre to take or snatch away, seize, catch, detect, etc., f. de- I. 2 + prehend-ĕre to lay hold of, seize.]
1. trans. To seize, capture; to arrest, apprehend.
| 1532 More Confut. Barnes viii. Wks. 758/1 He would..cause them to be deprehended and taken. a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 6 About the year of God 1431, was deprehended in the Universitie of Sanctandrose, one named Paull Craw, a Bohame..accused of heresye. a 1639 Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. vi. (1677) 390 With him were deprehended divers missive Letters..signed by the Earl. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying Ins. i. v. 11 Least they should be deprehended for theeves. 1834 Hogg Mora Campbell 638 Two wives at once to deprehend him. |
2. To catch or detect (a person) in the commission of some evil or secret deed; to take by surprise.
| 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. i. Wks. 1148/1 [Achan] myghte wel see that he was deprehended and taken agaynst hys wyl. 1543 Grafton Contn. Harding 583 Yf he were deprehended in lyke cryme. 1574 Whitgift Def. Aunsw. ii. Wks. 1851 I. 272 Touching the woman deprehended in adultery. 1622 Donne Serm. i. 6 When Moses came down from God, and deprehended the people in that Idolatry to the Calfe. 1677 Cary Chronol. ii. ii. iii. iii. 228 Being deprehended a Confederate with Sô, King of ægypt..this stirred up the King of Assyria against him. |
b. To convict or prove guilty (of).
| 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. iii. xi. (1622) 80 Noting the countenance, and the feare of euerie one of such, which should be deprehended of this shamefull lauishing. |
3. To detect or discover (anything concealed or liable to escape notice).
| 1523 in Burnet Hist. Ref. II. 105 The more the said Breve cometh unto light..the more falsities may be deprehended therein. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 430 The fraud..is easily deprehended, for both the odour and the colour are different from the true amber. 1626 Bacon Sylva §98 The Motions of the Minute Parts of Bodies..are Invisible, and incurre not to the Eye; but yet they are to be deprehended by Experience. a 1683 Whichcote Serm. (1698) 22 If it [our Religion] had been a Cheat and an imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time. |
b. With subord. clause.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xiv, In the bokes of Tulli, men may deprehende, that in hym lacked nat the knowlege of geometrye, ne musike, ne grammer. 1663 Blair Autobiog. vii. (1848) 89 We deprehended it to be a mere delusion. 1675 R. Vaughan Coinage 30 Easily deprehend if there be mixture of allay amongst it. |
Hence † depreˈhended ppl. a., caught in the act.
| 1655 Jer. Taylor Unum Necess. ix. §1 (R.) Of the thief on the cross and the deprehended adultress. 1660 ― Duct. Dubit. iii. i. rule 1 §12. |