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detain Definition

de·tain (dē tān′, di-)

transitive verb

  1. to keep in custody; confine
  2. to keep from going on; hold back
  3. Obsolete to withhold

Etymology: ME deteinen < OFr detenir < L detinere, to hold down or off, keep back, detain < de-, off, from + tenere, to hold: see tenant

detain Related Forms

de·tain′·ment noun

detain Synonyms

detain

v.

hold back, keep, inhibit, confine; see arrest 1, delay 1, restrain 1.

detain Usage Examples

Object

  • suspect: Police officers who detain suspects believed to be illegally in the UK take them to police stations.
  • seeker: In fact, there have been two suicides of detained asylum seekers at Harmondsworth detention center, run by Group 4 at the time.
  • offender: In their attempts to detain the offenders a fierce fight ensued.
  • protester: Police at the back of the demonstration, unbeknownst to the rest of us, harassed and intimidated and in some cases detained protesters.
  • prisoner: Open Prison A type of prison with a more relaxed regime than Larkhall, and which is used to detain low-risk prisoners.
  • foreigner: In the Philippines, the immigration act has been used to detain indefinitely foreigners suspected of terrorist acts.

Subject

police: Managers of the two mines have been detained by police.

Modifying Another Word

  • indefinitely: The Act allows foreign suspects to be detained indefinitely without charge.
  • compulsorily: This ran an unacceptably high risk of people who were not dangerous being compulsorily detained or treated.
  • unlawfully: Not assault on constable in execution of duty where person unlawfully detained by constable assaults same.
  • illegally: Another 60 protesters were illegally detained in a pen outside the main gates to the base.
  • unavoidably: Or maybe unavoidably detained at Her Majesty's pleasure?
  • arbitrarily: Hundreds of people were arbitrarily detained and held in poor prison conditions.

Present participle complement

pend: The suspect has been detained pending further police enquiries.

Preposition: without

  • trial: He said that foreign terror suspects detained without trial in the UK were still free to leave the country.
  • charge: The Act allows foreign suspects to be detained indefinitely without charge.

Preposition: in

  • custody: He was sentenced to be detained in strict custody during Her Majesty's Pleasure.
  • hospital: Section 58 allows some people who are detained in hospital to be treated, for their mental disorder, against their will.
  • prison: First, he was detained in prison without ever being shown the evidence for his detention.

Preposition: by

police: Managers of the two mines have been detained by police.