house arrest

American  

noun

• house arrests
  plural

1. confinement of an arrested person to their residence or to a public place, such as a hospital, instead of in a jail.

   He was under house arrest until the day of his trial.

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house arrest British  

noun

1. confinement to one's own home

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house arrest Cultural  

1. Forcible detention in one's house rather than in a prison. House arrest is used by some nations as a way to silence political dissent without the elaborate trials and criminal proceedings that would bring bad publicity.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• house arrests
  plural

Etymology

Origin of house arrest

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

house arrest

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak can serve the remaining two years of his abuse of power sentence under house arrest.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

SINGAPORE—Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak can serve the remaining two years of his sentence for abuse of power in the looting of the 1MDB sovereign-wealth fund under house arrest, the government said Friday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

This, she said, restricted the royal family's movement and their ability to receive visitors, describing it as "house arrest".

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Høiby, who is under house arrest pending appeal, was granted permission to attend the funeral, and sat in the second row during the cathedral ceremony alongside Märtha Louise's children.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

In the early summer of 1918, the royal family was moved to Yekaterinburg and placed under house arrest.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee