detention
/dɪˈtɛnʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The action of detaining someone or the state of being detained in official custody: the fifteen people arrested were still in police detention...
- His detention in custody beyond his criminal sentences has gone on long enough.
- With a history of military service and labour detention camps, these provisions are not surprising.
- The adjudicator surmises that if the appellant were in detention the police would not be searching for him.
Synonyms
custody, imprisonment, confinement, incarceration, internment, captivity, restraint, arrest, house arrest, remand, committal;
quarantine
archaic duress, durance
rare detainment
1.1The punishment of being kept in school after hours: teachers were divided as to the effectiveness of detention [count noun]: masters gave lines or detentions...
- Her advice ends up being to score herself and Zeke both an hour's detention after school.
- The entirety of last week had been spent with her in hour long after school detentions.
- At the end of every week at least one of us always had to stay after school for detention.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'withholding of what is claimed or due'): from late Latin detentio(n-), from Latin detinere 'hold back' (see detain).
Rhymes
- paddock's pipe
- paddock's spindle
- paddock-stool
- paddocky
- paddy
- paddy bird
- paddy field
- Paddyism
- Paddyland
- Paddy lucerne
- paddymelon
- paddy pounder
- Paddy's Day
- Paddy's hurricane
- Paddy's lantern
- Paddy's lucerne
- Paddy's market
- Paddy's pig
- paddywack
- paddy wagon
- paddywhack
- pad elephant
- padella
- pademelon
- Paderewski, Ignacy Jan