Past tense of detain
regular verb
The past tense of detain is detained. The past participle is also detained.
Forms of detain
| Base form (V1) | detain /dɪˈteɪn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | detained /dɪˈteɪnd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | detained /dɪˈteɪnd/ |
| Present participle | detaining |
| Third person singular | detains |
Detained in a sentence
- She's detained and questioned by Muller, and, even though she tries to lie that she didn't do anything, they have footage of her ascending the tree on her own.2021 August 16, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-6002 - All Creatures Great and Small” (19:06 from the start), in The Exploring Series...
- He was detained late Tuesday after deboarding a British Airways flight from London.From the entry deboard
- The detained train finally arrived hours late.From the entry detained
- Arthur Berto, a 13-year-old living in Everett, Massachusetts, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.2026 February 17, Aaron Blake, “The many claims by Trump’s DHS that have fallen apart”, in CNN, archived from the original on 20 Feb 2026. From the entry Everett
- The Chinese government has reportedly detained more than a million Muslims in reeducation camps.2019, Lindsay Maizland, “China’s Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang”, in Council on Foreign Relations, archived from the original on 10 Dec…. From the entry Uighur
Meaning of detain
- verb To keep something from proceeding or coming to completion; to delay.
- verb To keep someone from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention.
- verb To keep back or from; to withhold.
Questions about the past tense of detain
- What is the past tense of detain?
- The past tense of detain is detained.
- What is the past participle of detain?
- The past participle of detain is detained.
- Is detain a regular or irregular verb?
- Detain is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: detain (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of detain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/detain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.