Definition of "detain" []

• To keep from proceeding; delay or retard. (verb-transitive)
• To keep in custody or temporary confinement: The police detained several suspects for questioning. The disruptive students were detained after school until their parents had been notified. (verb-transitive)
• Obsolete To retain or withhold (payment or property, for example). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Please note that the position of the Bush-Cheney cabal has been that anybody they detain is * not* a POW, but a, well, ... ah, ‘terrorist’, in a ..... well, not a war, except as they say itis."
• "Even if the initial decision to detain is legally valid, for how long should detention last?"
• "Over the past eight years, we have seen the government over and over again detain men as “terrorists,” only to discover later that the evidence was weak, wrong or nonexistent."