Apprehension, foreboding, misgiving and presentiment all denote fear (or an instance of it) that something is going wrong or will go wrong.
Apprehension usually implies fear that obsesses the mind and keeps one anxious and worried.
- be under apprehension concerning a child’s health
- peasants who have survived a famine will be perpetually haunted by memory and apprehension
—Russell
Foreboding particularly designates oppressive anticipatory fear or superstitious, unreasoning, or inadequately defined fear; thus, one may relieve a person’s apprehensions yet find it hard to dispel his forebodings.
- there was a sadness and constraint about all persons that day, which filled Mr. Esmond with gloomy forebodings
—Thackeray
Misgiving suggests uneasiness and mistrust rather than anxiety or dread; it is often applied to sudden fears (as a suspicion that one is making a mistake, a doubt of one’s capacity to accomplish what one has undertaken, or a disturbing loss of courage.
- in the midst of my anecdote a sudden misgiving chilled me—had I told them about this goat before?
—L. P. Smith - his self-confidence had given place to a misgiving that he had been making a fool of himself
— Shaw
Presentiment implies a vague feeling or a dim, almost mystical, perception of something (not necessarily unpleasant) that seems bound to happen; however, because it frequently suggests an element of anticipatory fear and, in many cases, of foreboding, it comes into comparison with the other words of this group.
- the delicious repose of the soul . . . had been shaken . . . and alarmed with dim presentiment
—George Eliot