Usually means: Hold someone in official custody.
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We found 29 dictionaries that define the word detain:

General (24 matching dictionaries)
  1. detain: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. detain: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. detain: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. detain: Vocabulary.com
  5. Detain, detain: Wordnik
  6. detain: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  7. detain: Wiktionary
  8. detain: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  9. detain: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  10. detain: Infoplease Dictionary
  11. detain: Dictionary.com
  12. detain: Online Etymology Dictionary
  13. detain: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  14. Detain: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  15. detain: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  16. detain: Rhymezone
  17. detain: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  18. detain: Free Dictionary
  19. detain: Mnemonic Dictionary
  20. detain: Dictionary/thesaurus
  21. detain: Wikimedia Commons US English Pronunciations
  22. detain: Collins English Dictionary

Business (3 matching dictionaries)
  1. Everybody's Legal Dictionary (No longer online)
  2. Glossary of Legal Terms (No longer online)
  3. detain: Legal dictionary

Computing (1 matching dictionary)
  1. detain: Encyclopedia

Slang (1 matching dictionary)
  1. detain: Urban Dictionary

(Note: See detained as well.)

Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
verb:  (transitive) To keep someone from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention.
verb:  (transitive, law enforcement) To put under custody.
verb:  (transitive) To keep back or from; to withhold.
verb:  (transitive) To seize goods for official purposes.

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    gray,     dark blue,     black,     charcoal,     midnight blue, more...



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