detain

«detain» in Mova's school dictionary: To keep someone in a place and not let them leave, such… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (detain, detains, detained, detaining); noun detention

meaning for a pupil

1) To keep someone in a place and not let them leave, such as the police holding a suspect. tree →

2) To delay someone or keep them busy (I won't detain you long). tree →

3) (school) To keep a pupil after school as a punishment (detention). tree →

sense in the lessons

In safety and law: police can detain a suspect for questions. In school: detention. Formal voice: «Passengers were detained for questioning». Polite talk: «I won't detain you».

examples

• The police detained the man for questioning. tree →
• Sorry to detain you; I just have one question. tree →
• The storm detained us at the airport. tree →
• He was detained after school for being rude. tree →
• Two people were detained at the border. tree →
• The guard detained the thief until the police came. tree →
• "I will sing them all to you," said the mother; "but do not detain me now. tree →

note

Formal. Noun: detention (also school detention); detainee (a person detained). Regular verb.

In the corpora

• And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying: 'I am detained, I cannot go into the house of the LORD;

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «detain» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.