detention
Pluraldetentions
- 1A school punishment where a student must stay after class to do extra work.
Like having to stay inside doing chores while your friends play outside, because you broke a rule.
The teacher gave him detention for talking in class.
She spent her detention writing lines in the quiet room.
Note
- 2The act of holding someone so they cannot leave.
Like being kept in one place and not allowed to walk away.
The detention of the protesters lasted several hours.
Police explained the reason for her detention.
Similarcustody, confinement, imprisonment, incarceration, internment
Oppositerelease, freedom, liberty, liberation
Note
- 3The holding of a person in jail while they wait for their trial.
Like being kept in a locked room until the day a decision is made about you.
The judge ordered his detention until the trial began.
She remained in detention for weeks before her case was heard.
Similarcustody, remand, confinement, imprisonment, incarceration
Note
- 4Holding or controlling a thing physically, but without meaning to own or keep it.
Like holding a friend's phone for a minute: you have it in your hand, but it is not yours.
A borrower's detention of the book gives him no claim to own it.
The law treats the worker's detention of the tools as control without ownership.
Similarcustody
Note
Practice
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Origin
This word came from French, from a Latin word. It is linked to "detain."