Detention
//dɪˈtɛnʃn̩// name, noun
name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of detaining or the state of being detained; hindrance. uncountable
"In the case of rail-borne traffic, permission is given to each sender to load and forward his traffic so that it will be available for loading into the vessel with a minimum of detention to wagons, unless arrangements have been made for the traffic to be put into store to await the arrival of the ship."
- 2 a punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home wordnet
- 3 A temporary state of custody or confinement.; Confinement of a prisoner awaiting trial. countable, uncountable
- 4 a state of being confined (usually for a short time) wordnet
- 5 A temporary state of custody or confinement.; A punishment given to a student for a minor infraction, typically requiring the student to report to a designated room during recess or outside of school hours to work on homework or perform busywork. countable, uncountable
"be stuck in detention"
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- 6 The bare physical control without the mental element of intention required for possession. countable, uncountable
Proper Noun
- 1 A locality in Circular Head Council, north western Tasmania, Australia.
Example
More examples"Tom was given detention for talking during class."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French détention, from Latin detentio, detentionem. Equivalent to detain + -tion.
Related phrases
More for "detention"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.