Meaning & use
remand
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitivelegal
To order that a person accused of a crime stay in custody or on bail until their trial.
Grammar: Takes a person: remand him in custody.
Patterns
- remand someone in custody
- remand someone on bail
The judge remanded the suspect in custody until the next hearing.
He was remanded on bail after appearing in court.
Two men were remanded to await trial.
verbtransitivelegal
To send a legal case back to a lower court so that it can be looked at again.
Grammar: Takes a case as object: remand the case to the lower court.
Patterns
- remand a case to a court
The appeals court remanded the case to the district court.
The judge remanded the matter for a new hearing.
noununcountablelegal
The state of being held in custody before a trial, or an order to be held.
Grammar: Often in the phrase on remand: he is on remand.
Patterns
- on remand
- in remand
The prisoner spent six months on remand before his trial.
A remand hearing was set for Friday.
Conditions in the remand center were crowded.
Word forms
| third person singular | remands |
|---|---|
| past tense | remanded |
| past participle | remanded |
| -ing form | remanding |
Common combinations
- remand in custody
- The court may remand a dangerous suspect in custody.
- remand prisoner
- A remand prisoner has not yet been convicted.
- on remand
- He is on remand awaiting trial.
- remand hearing
- A remand hearing is held to decide if the accused is held.
- remand center
- He was taken to the remand center overnight.
Synonyms and how they differ
- detain
- Detain is wider and can be used for anyone held briefly, while remand is a court order before trial.
- commit
- Commit to prison suggests sending someone after a decision, while remand keeps them before trial.
- hold
- Hold is general and informal, whereas remand is the formal legal term.
- send back
- Send back is plain English, and remand is the legal term used for cases.
Opposites
Word family
- remanded adjective
- held pending trial or sent back
- remand prisoner noun
- a person held before trial
Commonly confused: remand or demand? remand or reprimand?
remand vs demand
Demand means to ask for firmly, while remand is a court term.
remand vs reprimand
Reprimand means to scold officially, and is unrelated to custody.
Practice
The judge ___ the accused in custody until the trial next month.
Choose one answer.
Remanded in custody is the fixed legal phrase. Released would mean the opposite, and demanded and reprimanded do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “remand”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.