1. To officially prevent a person from leaving a place or to keep someone in a prison or some other place: "The three teenagers were detained by the police for questioning regarding the shooting of a man who was running for exercise by the side of a street."
2. To keep people from leaving or arriving at an expected time: "The train detained passengers for one hour because it delayed its arrival as the result of an accident."
3. Etymology: from Latin detinere "to hold off, to keep back"; from de-, "from, away"+ tenere, "to hold".