Arresting

How to spell arresting

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce arresting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does arresting mean?

1. adjectiveSo strikingly impressive or unusual that it immediately seizes your attention.
2. verbPresent participle of arrest: seizing or detaining a person by legal authority.

Arresting in a sentence

• adjective

  The gallery's newest portrait is genuinely arresting, drawing crowds all afternoon.

• verb

  The officers were arresting the driver when the news crew arrived.

• adjective

  She has an arresting voice that makes everyone in the meeting fall silent.

• verb

  Video footage showed police arresting two protesters near the bridge.

Where does arresting come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of the verb 'arrest', which English took from the Old French 'arester', meaning 'to stop, stay or detain'. That French verb traces back to the Latin 'arrestare', formed from 'ad-', meaning 'to' or 'towards', and 'restare', meaning 'to remain' or 'to stand still', itself built on 'stare', 'to stand'. So at its root the idea is literally about bringing something to a standstill, which is exactly why police 'arrest' a suspect by stopping them in their tracks. English began using the verb in the 1300s, and by the 1800s the participle 'arresting' had taken on a vivid figurative life: something so striking that it stops you in your tracks and seizes your attention. The double 'r' is the spelling trap, inherited from the Latin 'arrestare', and the unstressed first vowel sounds like a faint 'uh' rather than the 'a' you actually write.

How the word is built

• ar- (from Latin ad-: to)
• rest (from restare: to stop, stand still)
• -ing (forming adjective/participle)