Detain vs Abstain - What's the difference?
detain | abstain |
Keep (someone) from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention.
To put under custody.
To keep back or from; to withhold.
* Jeremy Taylor
(transitive, reflexive, obsolete) Keep or withhold oneself.
Refrain from (something); hold one's self aloof; to forbear or keep from doing, especially an indulgence of the passions or appetites.
* Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? - Shakespeare, Richard II, II-i
(obsolete) Fast.
Deliberately refrain from casting one's vote at a meeting where one is present.
* Not a few abstained from voting. -
(obsolete) Hinder; keep back; withhold.
* Whether he abstain men from marying [sic]. -
As verbs the difference between detain and abstain
is that detain is keep (someone) from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention while abstain is keep or withhold oneself.detain
English
Verb
(en verb)- Detain not the wages of the hireling.
