• 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)
    1. A check, stop, an act or instance of arresting something.
    2. The condition of being stopped, standstill.
    3. (legal) The act of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.
    4. A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.
    5. A device to physically arrest motion.
    6. (nautical) The judicial detention of a ship to secure a financial claim against its operators.
    7. (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.
    8. (farriery) A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse.

    Verb

    1. (obsolete, transitive) To stop the motion of (a person or animal). 14th-19th c.
      • PhilipsNor could her virtues the relentless hand
        Of Death arrest.
    2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain. 14th-16th c.
    3. (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.
    4. (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.
    5. (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.
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