How to Use detain in a Sentence

detain

verb
  • They were detained by the police for questioning.
  • He claimed he had been illegally detained.
  • Unexpected business had detained her.
  • Dali was detained in Paris and flew back to New York on Dec. 4.
    — Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 26 Dec. 2024
  • The deputies tried to detain him, but the three men ended up grappling on the ground.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 2022
  • The man came out of the apartment just before 5 a.m. and was detained by deputies.
    — Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 10 Apr. 2024
  • As sirens blared, the officers were able to get Williams on the ground to detain him, the video shows.
    — Ahjané Forbes, USA TODAY, 11 Dec. 2024
  • The Padres have been unable to detain — or even deter — the Dodgers since.
    — New York Times, 19 Apr. 2021
  • Hochberg said Walls was attempting to detain the man for the crime and denied that Walls choked the man.
    — Tess Williams, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Dec. 2022
  • One of them joked that I might be detained once inside.
    — TIME, 17 Apr. 2024
  • Four were detained in Georgia in late April, along with more than 150 books.
    — Rachel Donadio, New York Times, 1 May 2024
  • The air marshal was able to detain the suspect and police helped to remove him from the plane.
    — Sophie Reardon, CBS News, 10 Dec. 2021
  • Nearly two-thirds of those who are detained are Black teens.
    — Molly Parker, ProPublica, 8 Nov. 2023
  • Kyiv says are detained in Russia – shows what is at stake for Ukraine.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025
  • Deputies detained the shooter on scene, and his name has not yet been released.
    — Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel, 29 Nov. 2024
  • Smotrich, then 25, was detained and questioned for weeks.
    — Mark Mazzetti Jonathan Davis Anna Diamond David Mason, New York Times, 16 May 2024
  • Deputies detained Wiggins and his girlfriend, then searched the house but did not find the victim.
    — Michael McGough, Sacramento Bee, 25 Jan. 2025
  • Cruz located one of the teens and attempted to detain him, but the teen ran.
    — Emilie Eaton, San Antonio Express-News, 25 Feb. 2022
  • Officers were able to locate and detain the man a short distance from the home.
    — cleveland, 4 Mar. 2022
  • In the first five months of this year, more than twice as many immigrants have already been detained at the jail.
    — Kristine Phillips, IndyStar, 2 Aug. 2025
  • Some people were detained, their hands bound with zip ties.
    — TIME, 2 May 2024
  • The suspects were stopped in a Winn-Dixie parking lot and detained.
    — Louis Casiano, Fox News, 3 July 2024
  • Miles was later able to detain Jones after a chase on foot.
    — Tandra Smith | [email protected], al, 19 July 2021
  • Hours before the game, he was detained along with a few of his Dolphins teammates.
    — Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 9 Sep. 2024
  • The footage then depicts a struggle that starts as Blasingame attempts to detain Black.
    — Teresa Moss, Arkansas Online, 9 June 2022
  • At some point, Lucas tried to detain Price, according to the Texas Rangers.
    — Dana Branham, Dallas News, 5 Oct. 2020
  • That these civilians took it upon them on their own to take him in, to detain him, to stop his movements.
    — Justin Raystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2022
  • When officers tried to detain him, the suspect ran toward the beach, north of Scripps Pier.
    — David Hernandez, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Mar. 2021
  • Children as young as two years old were often detained in place of their parents and some were also abused and tortured, the group found.
    — Helen Regan, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2025
  • The figures do not include the unknown number of Palestinians from Gaza detained in the past nearly two years of war.
    — Emily Feng, NPR, 16 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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