# arrest

Pronunciation: say "uh-REST" /əˈɹɛst/

## Verb

1. To seize someone under the authority of the law and take them into legal custody.
   - Simple: To stop and hold someone because the police think they broke the law.
   - _Police can arrest anyone caught committing a crime._
   - _Detectives arrested two men in connection with the robbery._
5. To stop or slow down a process or course of events.
   - Simple: To stop or slow down something that is happening.
   - _The treatment can arrest the disease's progress for several years._
   - _Rising interest rates arrested the rapid growth of the housing market._
6. To suffer a sudden stopping of the heart; to undergo cardiac arrest.
   - Simple: To have your heart suddenly stop beating.
   - _The man arrested twice before the team restored his heartbeat._
   - _Without quick treatment, patients may arrest within minutes._
7. To catch and hold the attention of someone or something.
   - Simple: To catch and hold someone's attention.
   - _The headline arrested readers with its bold and surprising claim._
   - _Few images arrest the eye like that famous wartime photograph._
10. To bring a moving person or animal, or a moving part of the body, to a halt. *(literary)*
   - Simple: To stop a person, animal, or body part from moving.
   - _A sharp pull on the reins arrested the mare just short of the stream._
   - _She reached out to arrest his arm before the blow could land._

## Noun

2. The act or process of seizing a suspect or criminal and taking them into legal custody.
   - Simple: The act of catching and holding someone because they may have broken the law.
   - _The arrest took place without any resistance from the suspect._
   - _News of the arrest spread quickly across social media._
3. Confinement or detention, such as the period of being held following a legal seizure.
   - Simple: Being kept in a place and not allowed to leave, often after being caught.
   - _The officer placed the cadet under arrest for the remainder of the voyage._
   - _Following the incident, the lieutenant spent a month under arrest._
4. A stopping or checking of something's motion or progress, or the state of being stopped; a standstill.
   - Simple: When something stops moving or stops growing or developing, or the time it stays stopped.
   - _Severe hunger in early childhood can cause a lasting arrest of physical and mental development._
   - _The trial found that the new drug produced an arrest of tumor growth in most patients._
8. A mechanical device that physically stops or holds motion.
   - Simple: A part or tool that stops something from moving.
9. In maritime law, the court-ordered holding of a ship as security for a money claim against those who operate it.
   - Simple: The court-ordered holding of a ship as security for money claimed from its owners or operators.
   - _The court ordered the arrest of the tanker until the owners paid the salvage claim._
   - _An arrest of the freighter prevented it from leaving the harbor._

## Noun

11. Any act of seizing or laying hold, whether by bodily force or by some other kind of power. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A taking hold of something by force or power of any kind.

## Verb

12. To stay or remain in a place. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To stay in one place, or to remain there.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A scurfy, flaky skin condition on the back part of a horse's hind leg.

## Origin

It comes from Middle English arest (noun) and aresten (verb), taken from Old French areste and arester ("to stay, stop"). These go back through Vulgar Latin to Latin ad- ("to") plus restō ("to stop, remain behind"), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh₂- ("to stand"). Compare modern French arrêter ("to stop").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/arrest (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).