Detain vs Distrain - What's the difference?
detain | distrain |
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
(label) To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.
*, VII:
*:But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine .
* 1600 , (Edward Fairfax), The (Jerusalem Delivered) of (w), XII, xii:
*:Thus spake the Prince, and gently 'gan distrain / Now him, now her, between his friendly arms.
To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
:
(label) To pull off, tear apart.
*, II.xii:
*:For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine .
As verbs the difference between detain and distrain
is that detain is keep (someone) from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention while distrain is to squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.detain
English
Verb
(en verb)- Detain not the wages of the hireling.