▪ I. detain, v.
(dɪˈteɪn)
Forms: 5–7 deteyn(e, 6–7 detein(e, deteign(e, detayn(e, detaine, (7 deten), 7– detain.
[Late ME. deteine, deteyne, a. OF. detenir (12th c. in Littré), detener (Britton) = Pr. and Sp. detener, Cat. detenir, It. ditenere:—Rom. type *dē-tenēre for L. dētinēre, to hold off, keep back, detain, f. de- I. 2 + tenēre to hold. For the root-vowel cf. contain, maintain, sustain, retain.]
1. a. trans. To keep in confinement or under restraint; to keep prisoner. spec. To place (a political offender) in confinement.
| [1292 Britton i. v. §3 Ou si maliciousement le fet detener.] 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 145 The peres of fraunce beyng thus assyeged and deteyned. 1548 Hall Chron. 10 A traytor..whiche is apprehended and deteigned in prisone for his offence. 1605 Camden Rem. 16 When King Richard first was deteined prisoner. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. III. lix. 279 He was detained in strict confinement. 1884 M. E. Braddon Flower & Weed 139 ‘Beg your pardon, sir,’ said the constable..‘I shall be obliged to detain you till this business is settled.’ 1918 Rep. Comm. Rev. Conspiracies 86 in Parl. Papers (Cd. 9190) VIII, Such men are the leaders and organizers of the movement. They are now detained or their arrest is intended under Regulation III of 1818. 1940 J. Anderson in Hansard Commons 23 May 277, I have found it my duty, in the exercise of my powers under Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939, to direct that Captain Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay, Member of Parliament, be detained. |
† b. pass. To be ‘holden’ or possessed with (infirmity, disease, etc.). Obs.
| a 1440 Found. St. Bartholomew's 18 With this so grete A sykenes was he deteynyd. 1549 Chaloner Erasmus on Folly T iij b, To be deteigned with suche a spece of madnesse. 1660 H. Bloome Archit. C b, A Maide of the City Corinthia..detained with sicknesse, dyed. |
2. a. To keep back, withhold; esp. to keep back what is due or claimed. ? Obs.
| c 1535 in Froude Short Stud. (1876) I. 422 The said abbot hath detained and yet doth detain servants wages. a 1625 Fletcher & Massinger Elder Bro. v. i, My sword forced from me too, and still detained. 1670 Marvell Let. to Mayor of Hull Wks. I. 153 To call to account such persons as detained money in their hands given charitably. 1710 Prideaux Orig. Tithes v. 221 These Tithes..have been granted by the King..but afterwards by the instinct of the Devil many have detained them. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxiv. 172 No longer then..Detain the relics of great Hector dead..restore the slain. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 855 The form of the writ..is sometimes in the debet and detinet, and sometimes in the detinet only: that is, the writ states..that the defendant owes and unjustly detains the debt or thing in question, or only that he unjustly detains it. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 288 The interest of the sum fraudulently detained in the Exchequer by the Cabal. |
† b. To keep (a person) from his right. Obs.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 80 Hereby the poore pastors are deteined from their right, and almost beggered. |
† 3. a. To keep, retain (in a place or position, in a state or condition, or in one's possession). Obs. (exc. as associated with 4.)
| 1541 Wyatt Defence Wks. (1861) p. xxv, That in all accusations the defendant might detain unto him counsel. 1578 Banister Hist. Man v. 66 Some [glandules] are strewed as beddes vnto Veynes, and Arteries, to deteine them from hurt. 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall xix. (Jam. Suppl.), To dedicate the same thing a Kirk, and yet deteene it a buriall. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 195 Rivers mentioned in the Scriptures, which to this day detayne their names. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. ii. (1636) 41 The inhabitants of Spaine are detained in superstition, by the vigilancy of the Inquisition. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 159 When we fix and detain them [our eyes] too long upon the same object. |
† b. To hold, hold down: transl. dētinēre of the Vulgate. Obs.
| 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) Rom. i. 18 Those men that deteine the veritie of God in iniustice [1611 hold: Wycl., Tind., Cranm., Geneva, withhold: Rev. V. hold down: Gr. κατεχόντων]. 1593 Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. 100 That..they might learne not to detaine the trueth of God in unrighteousnes. a 1694 Tillotson Serm. (1743) VII. 1846 Men have a natural knowledge of God; if they contradict it by their life and practice, they are guilty of ‘detaining the truth of God in unrighteousness’. |
† c. To hold or occupy with an armed force. Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. III. 103 A large and strong Fortresse..now detained by a Garison of Turkes. 1642 Lanc. Tracts (Chetham Soc.) 56 Thus the Lord hath preserved an unwalled Towne from being destroyed or detained by a great Armie. |
† d. To hold, engage, keep the attention of. Obs. (or merged in 4.)
| c 1585 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxiii. 7 No good on earth doth my desires detaine. 1621–51 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. vi. iii. 301, I am mightily detained and allured with that grace and comeliness. 1780 Harris Philol. Enq. Wks. (1841) 429 It wants those striking revolutions, those unexpected discoveries, so essential to engage and to detain a spectator. |
† e. To constipate, ‘bind’; also absol. to cause constipation. Obs.
| 1580 Frampton Dial. Yron & Steele 158 The water that cooleth the yron, doeth detayne the bellie. Ibid. 158 b, It is byndyng, and therefore it doeth deteyne. |
4. To keep from proceeding or going on; to keep waiting; to stop. (The ordinary current sense.)
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 577 For pity now she can no more detain him. 1644 Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 99/2, I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do. a 1665 Sir K. Digby Private Mem. (1827) 89 Here Theagenes resolved to detain him self some time. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. Rom. ii. 12 The business which then detained him. 1825 Cobbett Rur. Rides 424, I was detained..partly by the rain, and partly by company that I liked very much. 1861 D. Cook P. Foster's D. i, Don't let me detain you. 1891 E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 113 We will not detain our readers. 1892 Times (Weekly Ed.) 21 Oct. 2/4 The vessel..is detained in quarantine. |
† 5. To keep back or restrain from action; to hinder; to delay. Obs.
| 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 54 But he resolved not any thing, deteined by his blinde commission, and the advise of some other Capteines. 1621–51 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. iii. (1676) 326/1 Modesty would detain them from doing amiss. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. 244 How long wilt thou the general joy detain: Starve, and defraud the People of thy Reign? |
▪ II. † deˈtain, n. Obs. rare—1.
[f. detain v.]
the action of detaining, or fact of being detained; detention.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. vi. 15 And gan enquire of him with mylder mood The certaine cause of Artegals detaine. |