Meaning & use

arrest

verb·Academic

To seize and legally detain a person, typically on suspicion of committing a crime.

See it in a sentence

Police arrested three suspects after reviewing footage from the store's security camera.

He was arrested at the airport just before boarding his flight out of the country.

A note on using this word

Arrest can also mean to stop or slow something, as in arrest the spread of disease.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

Another way to use it

2. noun

The act of officially seizing a person as a suspected criminal.

The arrest was carried out quietly, without any struggle or resistance.

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