1. a. He who or that which arrests, stops or checks. b. He who arrests by legal authority.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., A-rester, or a-tacher, or a catcherel, or a catchepolle.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., lxxv. 155. Satan … is at most but an Arrester, and Hell a dungeon.
1879. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 28. A lightning arrester is provided in each box for the protection of the apparatus.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, IV. § 21. He was carried home by the arrester and put in chains.
1881. Times, 17 Feb., 11/4. The plaintiff based his case for damages upon the alleged negligence of the defendants in having a defective spark arrester on the engine running the express on that evening.
2. Sc. Law. One who under legal authority arrests a debt or property in the hands of another. (In this sense now more formally spelt ARRESTOR.)
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 358. Where a poinding was forcibly stopped by the possessor of the goods, on pretence that they had been already arrested in his hands by another, it was considered as completed in a question with the prior arrester.
1847. [See ARRESTEE.]
