From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetentionde‧ten‧tion /dɪˈtenʃən/ ●○○ noun 1 [uncountable]SCJ the state of being kept in prisonin detention Willis was held in detention for five years.2 [countable, uncountable]SES a punishment in which children who have behaved badly are forced to stay at school for a short time after the others have gone homein detention She was always getting put in detention.
Examples from the Corpus
detention• Many of those refused asylum had faced arrest, detention and torture upon their return to Sri Lanka, according to the report.• Both psychiatrists said the patient did not satisfy the conditions necessary for continued detention under the Mental Health Act.• Sanchez has been released without charge after five days' detention.• When they were rowdy and rude, I kept whole classes for detention.• A dissident, recently released from detention, gave a press conference in the capital today.• Mrs Davis was released from detention yesterday and all charges have been dropped.• Further detention can only be authorised in the case of a person who is suspected of having committed a serious arrestable offence.• His detention has provoked the anger of his supporters, who include the radical state senator Tom Hayden.• Marik, who had been held in detention for over a year, was eventually found not guilty.• About a dozen people remain in detention without trial.• They were taken into detention two weeks ago and still are not allowed visitors.• He was in and out of juvenile detention for drugs charges as a teenager.• Ormerod, age 19, was sentenced to nine months' detention for possessing and supplying cannabis.• Cases of detention without trial were common in the last century.• By the 1920s the average period of detention for new immigrants lasted two weeks.• Lines scoured on flesh in the penal settlement, or detention beyond the Styx.• Apart from the clearly implied step toward preventive detention, it was almost impossible not to detect an underlying racism.• There was another riot at the men's detention center yesterday.held in detention• Detained Numbers of refugees seeking asylum in the United Kingdom are held in detention for long periods following their arrival.• Up to 1,000 asylum seekers were being held in detention at any one time, the report said.Origin detention (1400-1500) Latin detentio, from detentus, past participle of detinere; → DETAIN 