School / C1

di-TENSHUN/dɪˈtenʃn/

Detention is being kept in custody by police or the state; in schools it is staying in after hours as punishment. Custody is the legal twin; imprisonment is longer and after sentence; release sits opposite. Scripts left on a staff-room table overnight are not in detention; they are at large.

Meaning

The state of being kept in custody; also keeping a pupil in after school.

Examples

• “Detention of scripts overnight needs a sealed room, not a staff-room table.”
• “Custody is the legal twin. Internment is political mass holding. After-school detention is the school sense. A table is open access. A seal and a log are custody. Lock the room; sign the bag in.”

Good to know

Being held in custody / after-school staying-in. Close: custody. Contrast: a staff-room table (not secured). Scripts need a seal.

Near in meaning

custody

Topics

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