Library / English Dictionary

DETAIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to be slowed down or delayed

Example:

she delayed the work that she didn't want to perform

Synonyms:

delay; detain; hold up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "detain" is one way to...):

decelerate; retard; slow; slow down; slow up (lose velocity; move more slowly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "detain"):

stonewall (engage in delaying tactics or refuse to cooperate)

catch (delay or hold up; prevent from proceeding on schedule or as planned)

stall (deliberately delay an event or action)

buy time (act so as to delay an event or action in order to gain an advantage)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stop or halt

Example:

Please stay the bloodshed!

Synonyms:

delay; detain; stay

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "detain" is one way to...):

check; delay; retard (slow the growth or development of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Deprive of freedom; take into confinement

Synonyms:

confine; detain

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "detain"):

keep (hold and prevent from leaving)

straiten (squeeze together)

gaol; immure; imprison; incarcerate; jail; jug; lag; put away; put behind bars; remand (lock up or confine, in or as in a jail)

intern (deprive of freedom)

bind over (order a defendant to be placed in custody pending the outcome of a proceedings against him or her)

imprison (confine as if in a prison)

cage; cage in (confine in a cage)

pin down; trap (place in a confining or embarrassing position)

keep in (cause to stay indoors)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to detain the prisoners

Derivation:

detainee (some held in custody)

detention (a punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home)

detention (a state of being confined (usually for a short time))

Credits

 Context examples: 

The dear girl was more affectionate with me than ever, and clung to me as though she would detain me; but there was much to be talked of and I came away.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“We had better move on, Mr. Weston,” said she, “we are detaining the girls.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Bennet had designed to keep the two Netherfield gentlemen to supper; but their carriage was unluckily ordered before any of the others, and she had no opportunity of detaining them.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

What else can detain him at Norland?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Give it to the superintendent at the police-station. Until he comes, I must detain you all under my personal custody.”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man’s rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of thirsty archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How very kind Mr. Brooke is, and how fortunate that Mr. Laurence's business detains him near you so long, since he is so useful to you and Father.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As I bent forward, she put her tumbler on my knee to detain me, and said: Oh, Trot, Trot!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Your cousin Edmund moves slowly; detained, perchance, by parish duties.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)