Definition of citizen's arrest
: an arrest made not by a law officer but by a citizen who derives authority from the fact of being a citizen
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Recent Examples of citizen's arrest from the Web
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O'Malley said in the release that citizen's arrests are legal, but dangerous.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'citizen's arrest.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of citizen's arrest
1940
CITIZEN'S ARREST Defined for English Language Learners
citizen's arrest
Definition of citizen's arrest for English Language Learners
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: an arrest made by a citizen rather than by the police
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