arrest

Etymology

From Middle English arest (noun) and aresten (verb), from Old French areste (noun) and arester (“to stay, stop”, verb), from Vulgar Latin *arrestō, from Latin ad- (“to”) + restō (“to stop, remain behind, stay back”), from re- (“back”) + stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), equivalent to ad- + rest. Compare French arrêter (“to stop”).

noun

1. A check, stop, an act or instance of arresting something.
2. The condition of being stopped, standstill.
3. (law) The process of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.
4. A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.
5. A device to physically arrest motion.
6. (nautical) The judicial detention of a ship to secure a financial claim against its operators.
7. (obsolete) Any seizure by power, physical or otherwise.
8. (farriery) A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To stop the motion of (a person, animal, or body part).
   Mr. Van Rensberg broke the spell by arresting Martha as she trailed past him on Billy's arm, by pointing his pipestem at her and saying, ‘Hey, Matty, come here a minute.’ 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 86
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain.
   A white Starre[…]whiche to every mans sighte did lighte and arrest apon the Standard of Albry. 1538, John Leland, Itineraries
3. (transitive) To stop or slow (a process, course etc.).
   1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …Western reason had entered the age of judgement.
4. (transitive) To seize (someone) with the authority of the law; to take into legal custody.
   The police have arrested a suspect in the murder inquiry.
   The policeman who arrests the "Red" does not understand the theories the "Red" is preaching; if he did, his own position as bodyguard of the monied class might seem less pleasant to him. 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I
5. (transitive) To catch the attention of.
   There is something about this picture—something bold and vigorous, which arrests the attention. I feel sure it would be highly popular. 1919: P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves
6. (intransitive, medicine) To undergo cardiac arrest.
   Realizing the mistake immediately from the outline of the RCA on the fluoroscope screen, he rapidly removed the catheter – just as his patient arrested. 2004, Euan A. Ashley, Josef Niebauer, Cardiology Explained, page 66