Arrest

In criminal practice. The stopping, seizing, or apprehending a person by lawful authority; the act of laying hands upon a person for the purpose of taking his body into custody of the law; the restraining of the liberty of a man's person in order to compel obedience to the order of a court of justice, or to prevent the commission of a crime, or to insure that a person charged or suspected of a crime may be forthcoming to answer it. Arrest is well described in the old books as "the beginning of imprisonment, when a man is first taken and restrained of his liberty, by power of a lawful warrant."

2 Shep. Abr. 209; Wood, Inst. Com. Law, 575.

In civil practice. The apprehension of a person by virtue of a lawful authority to answer the demand against him in a civil action. In admiralty practice. In admiralty actions a ship or cargo is arrested when the marshal has served the writ in an action in rem.

Williams & B. Adm. Jur. 193.

Synonyms distinguished

The term "apprehension" seems to be more peculiarly appropriate to seizure on criminal process; while "arrest" may apply to either a civil or criminal action, but is perhaps better confined to the former. As ordinarily used, the terms "arrest" and "attachment" coincide in meaning to some extent, though in strictness, as a distinction, an arrest may be said to be the act resulting from the service, excluding the act of taking, it would seem to differ from arrest, in that it is more peculiarly applicable to a taking of property, while arrest is more commonly used in speaking of persons.

Bouvier.

By arrest is to be understood to take the party into custody. To commit is the separate and distinct act of carrying the party to prison, after having taken him into custody by force of the execution.

1 Metc. (Mass.) 503.