citizen's arrest

noun

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

Examples of citizen's arrest in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

O'Malley said in the release that citizen's arrests are legal, but dangerous. — Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com, "County prosecutors say trio who brought teen car thieves to police station in trunk of car committed no felonies," 14 Sep. 2017

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.

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Dictionary Entries near citizen's arrest

citizen's arrest

citizens' ticket

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Time Traveler for citizen's arrest

The first known use of citizen's arrest was in 1940

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More Definitions for citizen's arrest

citizen's arrest

noun

English Language Learners Definition of citizen's arrest

: an arrest made by a citizen rather than by the police

See the full definition for citizen's arrest in the English Language Learners Dictionary

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