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Detain vs Inmate - What's the difference?

detain | inmate |

As a verb detain

is keep (someone) from proceeding by holding them back or making claims on their attention.

As a noun inmate is

a person confined to an institution such as a prison (as a convict) or hospital (as a patient).

detain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • 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
    • Detain not the wages of the hireling.

    inmate

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person confined to an institution such as a prison (as a convict) or hospital (as a patient)
  • A person who occupies or dwells within a dwelling-house. The word came to be used to refer to temporary inhabitants such as guests in a hotel, students in an on-campus dormitory, patients in a hospital, or prisoners.

    • Usage notes

    Perhaps around 1970, television journalists began to use the word as a euphemism for "prisoner", and today perhaps many young people cannot remember that it ever had any other meaning.

    Anagrams

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