Detainer
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The right to keep a person, or a person's goods or property, against his will; a type of custody.
"On Monday, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed a similar detainer on Melvin Jovel, 18, who on Sunday was the sixth person to be arrested in the case."
- 2 One who detains.
"[…] he chatted gaily with his fair detainer, showing no inclination to escape from the bondage in which she sought to retain him."
Example
More examples"On Monday, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed a similar detainer on Melvin Jovel, 18, who on Sunday was the sixth person to be arrested in the case."
Etymology
Borrowed from Anglo-Norman detener, from Old French detenir. By surface analysis, detain + -er (action noun suffix). First attested in the 17th century.
From detain + -er (agent noun suffix).
Related phrases
More for "detainer"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.