arrest

English Online Dictionary. What means arrest‎? What does arrest mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English arest (noun) and aresten (verb), from Old French areste (noun) and arester (“to stay, stop”, verb), from Vulgar Latin *arrestō, from Latin ad- (“to”) + restō (“to stop, remain behind, stay back”), from re- (“back”) + stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), equivalent to ad- +‎ rest. Compare French arrêter (“to stop”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈɹɛst/
• Hyphenation: ar‧rest
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

arrest (countable and uncountable, plural arrests)

1. A check, stop, an act or instance of arresting something.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. The condition of being stopped, standstill.

3. (law) The process of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.

4. A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

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.
8. (farriery) A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

arrest (third-person singular simple present arrests, present participle arresting, simple past and past participle arrested)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To stop the motion of (a person, animal, or body part). [14th–19th c.]
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain. [14th–16th c.]
3. (transitive) To stop or slow (a process, course etc.). [from 14th c.]
   • 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN

     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.]
5. (transitive) To catch the attention of. [from 19th c.]
   • 1919: P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves:

     There is something about this picture—something bold and vigorous, which arrests the attention. I feel sure it would be highly popular.

6. (intransitive, medicine) To undergo cardiac arrest.

Synonyms

• (to stop the motion of): freeze, halt; See also Thesaurus:immobilize
• (to stay):
• (to stop or slow a process): cease, discontinue; See also Thesaurus:desist
• (to seize someone): apprehend, seize; See also Thesaurus:capture
• (to catch the attention of): attract, dazzle, engage, entice; See also Thesaurus:allure

Derived terms

Related terms

• arrestation

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Arters, arrêts, rarest, raster, raters, retars, starer, starre, tarres, terras

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [əˈrest]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [aˈrest]

Noun

arrest m (plural arrests or arrestos)

1. arrest

Derived terms

• ordre d'arrest

Further reading

• “arrest”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “arrest”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “arrest” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “arrest” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Danish

Etymology

Via German Arrest from Middle French arrest (“arrest”) (French arrêt), derived from the verb arrester (“to hold back, arrest”) (arrêter), borrowed to Danish arrestere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aˈʁasd̥], [aˈʁɑsd̥]

Noun

arrest c (singular definite arresten, plural indefinite arrester)

1. arrest (the process of holding back a suspect)
2. confinement, detention (a short-time prison)

Declension

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch arrest, from Old French arest.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈrɛst/
• Hyphenation: ar‧rest
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

arrest n (plural arresten, diminutive arrestje n)

1. (law) sentence passed by a higher court
2. (law) confiscation ordered by a legal ruling
3. (law, historical) detention, confinement, especially after being arrested

Derived terms

• huisarrest
• kamerarrest
• stadsarrest

Descendants

• → Indonesian: ares
• Negerhollands: arrest

Anagrams

• raster, terras

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian arresto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /arˈrɛst/

Noun

arrest m (plural arresti)

1. arrest, detention

Related terms

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old French arester.

Noun

arrest m (definite singular arresten, indefinite plural arrester, definite plural arrestene)

1. arrest, custody, detention

Derived terms

• husarrest
• politiarrest

Related terms

• arrestasjon
• arrestere

References

• “arrest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old French arester.

Noun

arrest m (definite singular arresten, indefinite plural arrestar, definite plural arrestane)

1. arrest, custody, detention

Derived terms

• husarrest
• politiarrest

Related terms

• arrestasjon
• arrestere

References

• “arrest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Noun

arrest c

1. a location with holding cells or the like for temporarily detaining people (usually at a police station)

   Synonym: (slang) kurra

2. arrest, custody, detention

Declension

Related terms

• arrestera

See also

• häkte

References

• arrest in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• arrest in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• arrest in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• arters, estrar, raster, tsarer