[a. OF. arestement (later arrêtement): see ARREST v. and -MENT.]
1. The action of stopping, staying or checking.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., II. 612/1. An arrestment of the movements of the muscles.
1845. Vest. Creat., 276. An arrestment of this principle at a particular early point.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Plants, ix. 201. Any such arrestment of movement.
b. concr. The material result of such stoppage or check.
1872. H. Macmillan, True Vine, vii. 316. Just as fruit is the arrestment and metamorphosis of the branch, so are thorns an arrestment and blight in the formation of branches.
2. The action of apprehending a person by legal authority; arrest, apprehension. (Chiefly Scotch.) Formerly fig. forcible or authoritative seizure.
1474. Act 7 Jas. III. (1597), § 52. Arreistmentes be Crowners or Serjandes.
1601. Chester, Love’s Martyr, XXIII. (1878), 86. To deaths arestment he began to yeeld.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 101. Loosed from the arrestment of vanity.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 375. Judgment in a civil case … upon which execution and personal arrestment can proceed in fourteen days.
1883. Blackw. Mag., June, 800/1. Rothesay’s arrestment and custody.
3. Seizure of property by authority of law; attachment. Esp. in Sc. Law, ‘A process by which a creditor may attach money or moveable property, which a third party holds for behoof of his debtor.’ Craig.
1581. Act 7 Jas. VI. (1597), 8 117. Quhen Arreistmentes ar maid to mak the gudes furthcummand.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 17. Action cannot be brought against him till his effects be first attached by an arrestment jurisdictionis fundandæ causa.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, xiii. ‘Ye have omitted to speak a word of the arrestments.’
1864. Daily Tel., 16 Aug. The peculiarities of Scotch common law … Arrestment to found jurisdiction is one of them. It was derived from the Roman law, and is still existent … by force of custom in London … under the name of ‘foreign attachment.’
