Arrest
Pronunciation
- IPA: /əˈɹɛst/
Origin
From Old French arester ("to stay, stop"), from Vulgar Latin *arrestare, from Latin ad- ("to") + restare ("to stop, remain behind, stay back"), from re- ("back") + stare ("to stand"), from Proto-Indo-European *stehâ‚‚- ("to stand").
Full definition of arrest
Noun
arrest
(plural arrests)- A check, stop, an act or instance of arresting something.
- The condition of being stopped, standstill.
- (legal) The act of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.
- A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.
- A device to physically arrest motion.
- (nautical) The judicial detention of a ship to secure a financial claim against its operators.
- (obsolete) Any seizure by power, physical or otherwise.
- Jeremy TaylorThe sad stories of fire from heaven, the burning of his sheep, etc., ... were sad arrests to his troubled spirit.
- (farriery) A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse.
Derived terms
Verb
- (obsolete, transitive) To stop the motion of (a person or animal). 14th-19th c.
- PhilipsNor could her virtues the relentless hand
Of Death arrest. - (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain. 14th-16th c.
- (transitive) To stop (a process, course etc.). from 14th c.
- 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 707:To try to arrest the spiral of violence, I contacted Chief Buthelezi to arrange a meeting.
- 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …Western reason had entered the age of judgement.
- (transitive) To seize (someone) with the authority of the law; to take into legal custody. from 14th c.The police have arrested a suspect in the murder inquiry.
- ShakespeareI arrest thee of high treason.
- (transitive) To catch the attention of. from 19th c.
- 1919: P. G. Wodehouse, :There is something about this picture—something bold and vigorous, which arrests the attention. I feel sure it would be highly popular.