Word.ws English Dictionary

detaining

detaining is the present participle and gerund of detain.

Noun

detaining (plural detainings)

  1. A delay, hindrance, or impediment; the act of holding back.
    • The heavy rain was a detaining on their progress.
  2. The act by which someone is detained; detention.
    • The suspect’s detaining lasted several hours.

Meaning of detain

Verb

detain (third-person singular simple present detains, present participle detaining, simple past and past participle detained)

  1. (transitive) To keep something from proceeding or coming to completion; to delay.
    Synonyms:
    delay, hinder, impede, retard
  2. (transitive) To keep someone from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention.
    Synonyms:
    hold back
  3. (archaic, transitive) To keep back or from; to withhold.
    • Detain not the wages of the hireling: […]1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Of Christian Justice”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, section III (Of Negotiation, or Civil Contracts), page...
  4. (transitive) To put someone under custody.
    • In April of 2009, however, the disease was found to suddenly no longer be appearing in newly-hatched chickens, and, upon review, it was discovered that Dr. Wildcat had modified 6002 without authorization, removing the disease from the genome. She's detained and questioned by Muller, and, even...2021 August 16, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-6002 - All Creatures Great and Small” (19:06 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 10 Jan 2023
  5. (transitive) To seize goods for official purposes.

Synonyms of detaining

Forms of detaining

pluraldetainings

Questions about detaining

What does detaining mean?
Detaining means a delay, hindrance, or impediment; the act of holding back.
What is detaining the present participle and gerund of?
Detaining is the present participle and gerund of detain.
What part of speech is detaining?
Detaining is a noun.
What is the plural of detaining?
The plural of detaining is detainings.

Words near detaining in the dictionary

  1. detaineeship
  2. detainer
  3. detainers
  4. detainest
  5. detaineth
  6. detaining
  7. detainingly
  8. detainings
  9. detainment
  10. detainments
  11. detains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: detaining (page history and authors); detain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “detaining.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/detaining. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.