protective custody
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.87 in modern English
30
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
5
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Lawful confinement of a person or close supervision of his or her movements, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, by authorities in order to safeguard that person from attack or other dangers.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "A so‐called star witness in the Brooklyn grand jury inquiry of alleged links between the police and gamblers sought unsuccessfully yesterday to free himself from protective custody."
- "The government has earmarked a paltry $1.2 million . . ., not enough to properly fund even the state-run counseling centers—the only institutions with the authority to put battered children into protective custody."
- "Authorities charged a man today with 'arson causing death' after a week of devasting fires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury."
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.