arrested development

Noun

arrested development (countable and uncountable, plural arrested developments)

1. A state where development has stopped prematurely.
   • There are upon record a certain number of cases in which two or more urinary bladders are said to have existed. Of these some appear to me to have been cases in which the plurality was maintained merely because the organ was divided into compartments, either as a consequence of arrested development...1835–1836, Benjamin Phillips, "Bladder, Abnormal Anatomy", in Robert Bentley Todd (ed.), The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, Volume I (A–DEA), Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, page...
   • Dr. Chamneys observes, that during fœtal life the mucous layer of the prepuce is always blended with the glans, and that with approaching birth the adhesion melts away. Adherence of the prepuce after birth is thus the result of arrested development. To draw back the foreskin is extremely advisable...1885, Edmund Owen, The Surgical Diseases of Children, Lea Brothers & Co., page 269