house arrest

noun

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

Definition of house arrest

: confinement often under guard to one's house or quarters instead of in prison

See house arrest defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of house arrest from the Web

Aung San Suu Kyi, the wildly popular opposition leader held by the military under house arrest for some 15 years, was barred from participating.

— timothy mclaughlin, WIRED, "How Facebook’s Rise Fueled Chaos and Confusion in Myanmar," 6 July 2018
After the fight, Scott was captured and imprisoned (as seen in Civil War), then apparently tried and convicted in America, and sentenced to two years of house arrest.

— tasha robinson, The Verge, "Ant-Man and the Wasp is a solid improvement on Ant-Man," 6 July 2018
Meanwhile, former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala was sentenced last summer to 18 months of house arrest while being investigated for possible corruption; he was ordered released in May and the investigation continues.

— chris kraul, latimes.com, "Ecuador seeks arrest of former president in kidnapping inquiry," 4 July 2018
Latest Stories Spanier has been on bail while appealing, so has not served his sentence of two months in jail followed by two months of house arrest.

— NBC News, "Ex-Penn State president Spanier, convicted over Sandusky complaint, loses appeal," 26 June 2018
Lindsey would later plead no contest to several felonies and was sentenced to two years of house arrest to be followed by 28 years of probation.

— jeff weiner, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Children killed in Orlando standoff: Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr. had history of violence, arrests," 12 June 2018
Many said this type of house arrest was unprecedented and a judge agreed.

— morgan baila, refinery29.com, "Everything New In Netflix’s The Staircase," 8 June 2018
After a trial Galileo was sentenced to house arrest in 1633.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Did Math Kill God?," 27 Apr. 2018
But President Richard Nixon ordered his sentence reduced, and Calley only served three years of house arrest.

— editors, USA TODAY, "5 things you need to know Friday," 16 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'house arrest.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.