From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetainde‧tain /dɪˈteɪn/ ●○○ verb [transitive] 1 SCKEEP somebody IN A PLACEto officially prevent someone from leaving a place Two suspects have been detained by the police for questioning. She was detained in hospital with a suspected broken leg.2 DELAY formal to stop someone from leaving as soon as they expected SYN delay He was detained in Washington on urgent business.Grammar Detain is often passive in this meaning.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
detain• When Stephen reaches Winchester safely, the Earl of Gloucester will be released and his son detained.• Mr Jones should be here, but I'm afraid he's been unavoidably detained.• His body was found in the sports complex where police had taken those detained.• Three men from the ship have been detained for questioning by the Harbour Authorities.• All are detained in Darlington Memorial Hospital.• Mrs. Flanagan was detained in Washington on urgent business.• George had a tendency to be detained or shot at for sketching coastal installations in strategic areas.• The police are now allowed to detain terrorist suspects for as long as a week.• The officer later detained the man after a struggle, but needed ten stitches to the wound.• Police detained two suspects for questioning.• Since 1981 hundreds of people have been detained under this law, some for more than eight years.• I won't detain you for much longer, Miss Reid. There are just a few more questions that I need to ask you.detained ... for questioning• The captain was detained for questioning.• At the islands' police headquarters they were detained for questioning for four and a half hours.Origin detain (1400-1500) Old French detenir, from Latin detinere, from tenere “to hold” 