Definition of "arrest" in English

noun

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

2. The condition of being stopped, standstill.

   • cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest

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

   • State police made a total of 15 drug-related arrests across the city.

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

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

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To stop the motion of (a person, animal, or body part).

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain.

3. (transitive) To stop or slow (a process, course etc.).

   • 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.

   • The police have arrested a suspect in the murder inquiry.
   • The suspect merchant ship has been arrested by customs officers.

5. (transitive) To catch the attention of.

   • 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.