arrest

arrest vb 1 Arrest, check, interrupt mean to stop in mid-course.

Arrest implies a holding fixed in the midst of movement, development, or progress and usually a prevention of further advance until someone or something effects a release

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arrest the progress of a disease

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{

discouragement sometimes arrests a child’s development

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{

books that arrest attention

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Check (see also RESTRAIN) suggests suddenness and force in stopping as though bringing to a halt sharply or with a jerk

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the entrance of the teacher checked the disturbance in the schoolroom

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he checked himself just as he was about to blurt out his indignation

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he caught her by the arm as she ran past and . . . without trying to check her, simply darted in with her and up the stairs— Conrad

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Interrupt stresses a breaking in and a consequent stopping, but it carries no clear suggestion that continuation is impossible or improbable

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interrupt a lecture with a question

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their talk was interrupted by the arrival of visitors

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{

he was discouragingly interrupted at the point when ideas and words were flowing freely

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Analogous words: *interpose, intervene, interfere: *delay, detain, retard: *frustrate, thwart, balk

Antonyms: activate: quicken

Contrasted words: *vitalize, energize: *stir, rouse, arouse, awaken: prolong (see EXTEND)

2 Arrest, apprehend, attach, detain mean to seize and hold under restraint or in custody by authority of the law. The same likenesses and differences in meaning are manifest in the comparable use of arrest, apprehension, attachment, detention.

Arrest (verb or noun) is the most widely used of these words for the seizing of a person and holding him in custody. It refers both to civil cases where a person is placed under restraint, and to criminal cases, where apprehend and apprehension are also used; strictly, one arrests a person for debt, but one apprehends a thief; witnesses are tinder arrest; the apprehension of the rioters is demanded. Ordinarily laymen seldom use arrest except in the sense of apprehend, for it carries connotations which make its use avoided in reference to witnesses or even suspects. The words commonly used when property is seized and held (as for payment of a debt) are attach and attachment

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attach the accounts of a firm suspected of falsification of income tax reports

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Attach and attachment are used in reference to persons chiefly when the intent is to make them appear in court (as to answer for contempt or to serve as a witness).

Detain and detention usually imply holding in custody (as for inquiry or inspection). They are not strictly legal terms but are often used when there is the desire to avoid the stigma associated with the word arrest

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the health officers detained the ship

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detain a suspect

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detain a witness

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Analogous words: seize, *take: *catch, capture: *imprison, incarcerate, jail

Contrasted words: discharge, release, liberate, *free

arrest n apprehension, detention, attachment (see under ARREST vb)

Analogous words: seizing or seizure, taking (see corresponding verbs at TAKE): capturing or capture, catching (see corresponding verbs at CATCH)

Contrasted words: liberation, discharging or discharge, releasing or release (see corresponding verbs at FREE)