Word familynounpreventabilitypreventerpreventionpreventivenesspreventive detentionadjectivepreventableadverbpreventivelyverbprevent
Related topics: Jail & punishment
preˌventive deˈtention noun [uncountableU]
British EnglishBrE lawSCJ a system in which people who are guilty of many crimes are kept in prison for a long time 〔对于惯犯的〕预防性拘留
Examples from the Corpus
preventive detention• Her order of preventive detention caused consternation among lawyers over a possible breach of civil liberties.• Apart from the clearly implied step toward preventive detention, it was almost impossible not to detect an underlying racism.