arrest: Meaning and Definition of

ar•rest

1. to seize (a person) by legal authority or warrant; take into custody: The police arrested the burglar.
2. to catch and hold; attract and fix; engage: The loud noise arrested our attention.
3. to check the course of; stop; slow down: to arrest progress.
4. to control or stop the active progress of (a disease): The new drug did not arrest the cancer.

1. the taking of a person into legal custody, as by officers of the law.
2. any seizure or taking by force.
3. an act of stopping or the state of being stopped: the arrest of tooth decay.
4. any device for stopping machinery; stop.
5. in custody of the police or other legal authorities: They placed the suspect under arrest at the scene of the crime.