house arrest

American

noun

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.

house arrest British

noun

confinement to one's own home

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

house arrest Cultural

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.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

house arrests

plural

Etymology

Origin of house arrest

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Deng also crushed intraparty democracy, Pei said, with only Zhao Ziyang—the reform-minded party secretary who was placed under house arrest after opposing the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989—daring to experiment with it briefly.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026

His co-conspirator Mark Chavez was sentenced to house arrest.

From Barron's • May 27, 2026

He has been held under house arrest since he was found guilty of treason in 2023.

From BBC • May 25, 2026

Mrs. Kirchner is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest for fraud in the administration of public-works contracts in the province of Santa Cruz.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 10, 2026

With the death of the first Ptolemy, Demetrius was placed under house arrest, never to see freedom again.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023